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poor guy indeed! some cicada species spend up to 17 years as grubs (please correct me if i'm wrong). though most species i think is only a few years. imagine spending so long as a grub, and then finally emerging wild and free!... only to be thrown straight into the arms of a mantis :o :o...

thats really fascinating, thanks for sharing. i have never kept any species that are known to produce this way so have never experienced it.

it did look pretty small for a first ooth like i said before... :( how old was she as adult when you mated her? what were you/have you been feeding her? the mother of the generation i have now was about 6 months as adult when i mated her, and had already layed quite a few oothecae. she laid...

what happened to mikhail, i thought he was churning them out big time?

i dont know much about orchid mantids or gallons, but i'll try to give a few thoughts. i quickly googled gallons to litres and apparently 1 gallon is about 4.5 litres? i sometimes use 72 litre containers for keeping mantids together, and i reckon one of these could hold about 3 adult pairs of...

it wouldnt be a great idea to feed any one thing alone. variety is the spice of life!

ah i miss them so much! they were almost like keeping some type of predatory beetle as opposed to a mantis. i mean i know they still moulted etc but their looks and behaviour were so removed from other mantids, very refreshing and interesting!

i think idolomantis meant the females abdomen, in which case that may be a good way of telling (a sudden decrease in abdomen size). im pretty sure they lay them inside the sand, so as to where exactly the ootheca is would be a different question :P i guess it wouldnt be so deeply buried so if...

i thik this is where i went wrong <_< :( :( here is an older female (presubadult/subadult? i forget but as adult she had very small wings): EDIT: ditto.

i cant really remember (almost 20 years ago! and i was only two) whether it was very hot or cold but i doubt it as i had my hands in with it. i assume it must've suffocated somehow, maybe all the foam from the shampoo got into its nasal passages, or maybe it swallowed some, or maybe i was just...

congratulations! i have not had experience with this species hatching out periodically, but still i hope you get some more from that ootheca (and the others!), let us know if you do.

you jest, but when i was 2 i decided to wash one of the chicks we had in the house. i even used shampoo. it died during the wash <_< :(

:o :o :o you win, hands down. the worst luck i ever had was 6 males of a species, and then 5 males of another species. 6/6 split is pretty good though, i hope you can make these more available in usa and bring the prices down.

do you know how long the male has been adult for?

heres one of my green girls (its only the girls that seem to turn green, ive never seen a boy turn green).

brilliant pictures, especially that first one!

are you sure it is idolomantis diabolica? pet stores have been known to be very cheeky and sell blepharopsis mendica as "devils flower mantis" and idolomantis before, and if it is an ootheca it is even easier to get away with, so be careful! got any pictures?

if theyre too weak to even hang from the roof i doubt they will be strong enough to catch or even hold any food. sounds like theyre on the way out, sorry.

i can go along with the "walking into things too much/rubbing" one, sounds the most plausible of the two. just thought i would throw this picture into the thread, seems relevant: (photo by marco junkie, im sure he doesnt mind me posting as it is already on the forum) in the case above i...

like birdfly said, that was pure speculation. i have no idea what the cause may be, but ive never had this problem with the eyes and i always spray the mantids directly (not exclusively).