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What is the best way to keep a male mantid alive as long as possible? Seems a shame that they die so quick. I read advice that to slow the progression of a male through the instars you can try keeping them cooler and fed less than females. Seems counterintuitive for an adult though or does it...

That is superb :) will it require much maintenance long term?

Love the orchid! Might steal that idea ;)

Well, the male moulted to adult on 12th August. He's a handsome chap, can't believe how different he looks. Today is the first time I saw him eat since the moult, quite relieved as he hadn't shown any interest the couple days previous. Here are a couple pics while he was occupied munching...

Awesome! will be interesting to see how he changes with his next moult :)  

Hi all, My male has just moulted to adult... I'm looking to buy an adult female D.desiccata, ideally need her around the 1st week of September.  I'm in the UK, so only UK/ European options please :) Please message me if you can help,  Thanks!  Cat

If she ate well before it might be that she's simply not hungry again just yet :)

This is really informative, thanks!! :) I'm really looking forward to seeing them get their wings, it's such a fascinating process which i had never really appreciated before keeping these guys. I'll have to look into finding my male a more mature lady friend or he'll end up a 40wk old...

I recently set up my first mantis habitat. I left at least 3x height of empty space under the perch and mesh just to be sure. I have fake plants up the sides to act as ladders between the substrate and the perches and mesh at the top. My habitats are pretty empty across the centre and I think...

She is larger than he is by ~1cm in length and ~0.5cm width. Yeah they could be different instars. They were the same size when I got them about 4 weeks ago. The female moulted earlier this week, the male has not moulted yet with me. The second unmoulted female is still the same size as the...

Couldn't quite get it to come out in the photo, but the level of mimicry in the leaf detail of the pronotum is astounding. Its almost translucent in places when the light hits it right. This is still the female: I'm also fascinated by the sexual dimorphism in the shape of the pronotum (spot...

In an attempt to get her to stay still I offered her some food... Cricket still in motion.. Here she's snacking on the head

Hi Guys, Starting a thread here for pics of my Deroplatys desiccata as they grow. Currently I have 2 females and 1 male. My photos aren't great, hopefully I'll get better in time! Female 1:  Was super chill when out exploring, wanted to hang out on the camera though more than pose for pics :)

Made a new post with pics so we can play "Guess the Instar" ;)

Hi all,  I have taken a couple pics of my larger female D.desiccata, and the male too. I'm hoping someone will be able to hazard a guess at how many more moults I should be expecting from each to get to adulthood... Female 1: Male: My second female is 1 moult behind the female pictured...

@Ocelotbren it's good to hear that about the larger size mantids, will hopefully chill me out a bit more and not worry as much when my other two dessicata moult. 

@hymenopus she's not adult quite yet. I think perhaps the next moult will be to adult, but I'm not sure as this is her first moult with me. I'll take her out tomorrow and try to get some pics, maybe someone will be able to point out if there's a way to tell what moult she's at :)

She's taken 3 crickets since the moult, its been rocky lol... She was defensive rather than predatory the second time I tried to feed her, but grabbed it eventually. The next time she showed interest but wouldn't grab so I brought her out and made the cricket move around in front of her but no...

She didn't take the food offered today, seemed more set on running away which is the total opposite of her character before the moult. Will try again tomorrow :/

Awesome thanks!!  I'll offer her some food tomorrow :)