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Nice pics! Glad to see new mantis collection threads!

I wish double shields could retain their green colors throughout their lives! I feel they're beautiful as subadults, and freshly molted adults...

I love how big chaetas get! What rhombo species do you have? I am sad to say I lost my R. stalli culture. The females mated and some became eggbound while others laid ooths that never hatched. I don't know if anyone else is breeding stalli currently. I guess R. valida is still going strong?

It is a bug. Seriously though, it may be a bit tricky to differentiate between Creo species. From what I've seen, C. pictipennis have very light pink underwings, while C. gemmatus is smaller and has bright underwings. C. nebulosa is relatively new to culture and is larger than the other Creo...

Sorry to hear that! I find H. major to be extremely cannibalistic. I kept my nymphs together in groups of 5's until I started finding claws, legs, and heads on the bottom of the containers. And be careful when mating them - the female showed extreme aggression towards the male when I introduced...

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UMD, my alma mater! :D I wonder if I can go back and chat with the folks working on the project! Sad to say, when I was there, I didn't study anything remotely related to biology - biology and entomology has always been a side hobby for me. On a related note, here's a link to further...

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Finally, more interesting things are happening. :) First up, on 5/10, which happened to be Mother's Day, I had a double hatch of H. coronatus and P. breve. The orchids are my second generation. 16 orchid nymphs but only 2 mega ghost nymphs. Last weekend, my C. nebulosa ooth hatched (I...

It really varies. From my previous experience, I've had ghosts mate as early as 2 weeks, and as late as 2 months. It really depends on when they "feel like" mating. Last weekend, my gongy's mated - the female was 1 month 15 days and the male was 1 month 10 days adult.

Congrats on the hatch! And beautiful photos. Love the closeups.

Last weekend it was around 90F outside, cloudy with a little bit of wind, and I thought it would be a perfect time for my gongy's to mate. I placed pair together for the first time in a cage with twigs, and then I got sidetracked with other things and I completely forgot to move the cage...

Last summer my folks were complaining about a maggot problem in their outdoor trash container. I took a look and yep, there were dozens upon dozens of maggots wiggling about, in the bottom of the container, feeding off the liquid that leaked from trash bags. Add in the summer heat, plus the...

Were they easy to breed? Any specific culture tips that I should keep in mind?

I've always been curious as to how nymphs develop inside eggs. Shining a phone flashlight through an ooth is a really primitive method of seeing if there are eyeballs! Well, it doesn't really tell me much other than the fact that the ooth has developing nymphs. I'm trying to figure out if the...

My pair will be about ready soon! I wonder if I should place them in a cage outside. Will be 88 deg this weekend, maybe the heat will help them get into the mood. I will be sure to not overheat them though.

That looks like eye rub - when a mantis repeatedly rubs against the sides of the container, the outer layer of the eye becomes damaged. The result is what looks like an opaque patch, or in severe instances, the affected area will be brown/black. I haven't seen any adverse effects, and the...

Congrats on the hatches! I recently nearly had a FF emergency because I procrastinated with creating a new culture, and nymphs were eating more FFs than what was being produced.

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