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Just ordered another batch of blue bottle flies from her last week.  The pupae always arrive promptly, are well packed, have a high hatch rate, and are priced well.  She's also one of the few sources I know that actually offers fruit fly pupae. I ordered these a year or so ago because I wanted...

UPDATE - Just watched Creo female #1 produce ooth #2!  I thought I would throw up a couple "just starting" and "just finishing" photos.   Plastic enclosure + water drops sort of dampen the photo quality, but I was glad to have caught it.  I suspected she was getting broody this morning when she...

Even cooler...click on the link embedded in the Nat Geo story for more stuff on the team that discovered this mantis.  Projeto Mantis.  More awesome photos of mantises they observed/documented.  Wow.  How do you get that job?! ...is what I'm asking myself. 

Thanks guys.  Female # 2 produced an ooth last night.  Not sure if this one is fertile or not given the short lag time between mating and laying, but I'll make sure they're both well fed and ready produce additional ooths in the next couple weeks.  These females are pretty voracious!  Pleasantly...

Looking for some thoughts on Creobroter (gemmatus I think) fertility.  I've learned again today, the hard way, that even well-fed females are fond of a post-mating snack of male Creo.  I mated two females and two males over a couple weeks.  All involved were two weeks or older.  I fed the...

I noticed this happened too, with my last batch of adult H. venosas!  Some started developing the spot as pre-subs and sub-adults, but all had it by the time they were mature (or soon thereafter).  All of them could still see enough to eat, but I have to imagine it obscured their vision.  I...

Had to throw a comment in on this one!  I know I've mentioned it before on previous posts/threads...but the I think L2 European nymphs were the most difficult to raise of any I've experienced.  I've had L2s that are as small as the Europeans, but most seemed willing to tackle stuff that was a...

That's a cool looking old girl!  You bringing her in gave her an extra life for sure. Plus a couple bonus ooths!  Keep on feeding her, and she might crank out another!

Thought I would revive this thread rather than creating a new one.  (thanks hcarlton!) So I have 3 H. venosa females.  Two are over two months old now.  One is a little over a month. One of the three (the oldest actually) produced a fertile ooth at about a month. Since then, all three: - have...

ausar318s description is how I would describe it too.  Except for really early nymphs stages (where their hunger strike may only last a few hours leading up to a molt), they usually shut down and stop eating for a day or so before hand.  A week or longer for the last molt!  A couple other...

Incredible photos...of some really unique species.  With their mimicry, I'm seeing - ants, tiger beetles, small cricket/grasshoppers...with extra personality.  Really surprised how small the nymphs are for the M. splendidus.  Are they aggressive enough to tackle ffs at that stage?  Regardless...

I wonder about the same stuff all the time.  I'm still amazed how long sub-adults go between their last feeding and the final molt.  And as many times as I've seen it, almost every time I find myself getting a bit worried that they will somehow starve or not survive the molt after going on a...

Nice set-up.  I'd probably remove/replace your damp paper towel every 3 weeks or so.  It won't grow mold too quickly in a refrigerator...but it will eventually if you don't change it.  Especially with the plastic over the top.  If you see the paper towel turning any color on the edges (brown or...

BTW...the species that were mating (with the headless male) which I attached in the picture are H. venosa (golden phase).  The female mated successfully with a couple different males 1-2 weeks before giving me an ooth a couple days ago.  So I'm pretty sure the ooths will produce nymphs. 

I also grow milkweeds for monarchs in a flower garden. (and I raise some of the caterpillars).  Personally, I'd release the Carolinas.  Two thoughts.  First... the majority of the monarch breeding season (starting in late may) happens before any mantises (Either species) are even big enough to...

Yep.  Seen all sorts of photos of a similar scenario. Just never witnessed it in real life. Checked again about 10 minutes ago.  He must have finished mating...and then she finished him.  All that was left is a very fat, bred, female...and a small pile of legs and wings. I hope to get a healthy...

So everyone that has spent time on this forum, or raised mantises long enough, knows how the "Female always eats the head of the male during or after mating" thing is not nearly as prevalent as the myth implies.  It happens, but in many species, it's REALLY rare.  In fact, in the years I've...

Hey ohaple.  I thought about that too! To test it, I intentionally designed the enclosure to only have one available color background per caterpillar.  One with all brown.  One with green stems and/or lots of green leaves.  So unless I just happened to correctly match the caterpillar predesign...

Great topic. I've been trying to test and figure that out with mantises for years...but haven't come up with any rock-solid conclusions...just a bunch of observations and theories.  On a related note, I find it really funny that the only coloration experiment where I can pretty accurately...

Wow.  That is a SUPER cool color!  Never seen one so red/rust colored like that.