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@Graceface thanks for the tip! Update: Midway through their second week.  Their numbers have dwindled to 19 by my count last night.  There's 3 on the big free range plant and the rest are in habit containers.  Most sharing the space. I tried to keep as many fed as I could but food became an...

@hysteresis  Thanks!

Hey @hysteresis!  Yeah been a while.  Just preoccupied with work stuff.   So yeah they're roaming free but I've managed to keep most isolated by the bookshelf/plant and have been rounding up the adventurers, putting them in random clear containers with paper towel taped on the top as a lid...

Update: Sad to say Honeydew passed away 2 weeks ago.  Seemed to be from natural causes.  She was well fed as you all know.  Went peacefully laying down. I thought my mantis days were over... Came home from work today to find one of the ooths she laid on my plant hatched.  It was the third one...

I already spoil Honeydew with honey daily as a dietary supplement XD.  She seems to know how much to eat.  I did get her a gigantic hornworm though which seems to be her favorite.

@MantisGirl13 if you want you could design the experiment around their reaching.  Do handfed mantids reach for food or to hitch a ride?  Your hypothesis would be which you think it is.  Then you could record occurrences of them accepting a ride and accepting food following a reach.  Maybe it's...

I'm curious about their vision.  It seems primarily tuned to spot movement.  Sometimes when I'm watching her climb in her plant she feels around quite a bit before she finds a good hand hold.  Sometimes feeling in empty air and it makes me wonder why she doesn't see where the branch is and reach...

@MantisGirl13 that would be a great idea to compare different species.  It would add a new element to the original experiment. @hysteresis another great article.  That's interesting that discontinuous training (breaks between sessions) is more effective than continuous. I'm still really...

@hysteresis great find!

Do the shrimp molt?  Maybe right after they do when their shell hasn't hardened would be easier on the mantis too.

@Little Mantis I did!  Then had to clean a trail and puddle of it haha.

So today I got her a hornworm.  Had it on a chopstick while she was still in her cage.  I was just waiting for her to wake up and wander out then I was going to give it to her under a more controlled environment.  Nope.  She climbed out then dove off her cage and spear tackled the worm.  Rolled...

@MantisGirl13 It's further East.  Just above, outside the North Philly area.

@MantisGirl13 Whoa no way!  We're practically neighbors. I grew up in Thorndale/Downingtown, my family still lives in Thorndale.  I live in Ambler.

Oops, I've had them laying down, but I've been very gentle.  I'll try adhering them to some chopsticks tonight.  I'll need to do something like that anyway when I decide to incubate them.

Honey or bites of food.  It's got to be something enticing enough that the mantid seeks out more, but not enough that it becomes satisfied and loses interest.  Then you can repeat the process multiple times so the mantid can hopefully learn new behavior. @hysteresis it would be interesting to...

Cool, looks like a good way to do it!  Mine has laid her two in my house plant so I've had to clip out the leaves they're on.  I don't have them suspended at the moment but I'll keeping them in hybernation.  I'll probably use thread to tie them to a an branch when ready to incubate.

@hysteresis I'm a software engineer.  But I started out in psychology so I have a degree in that too. I'm planning to refrigerate the ooths through the winter.  I might try hatching one after Honeydew passes.  Otherwise the plan is to hatch them next spring and then disperse them around gardens...

@hysteresis Thanks! I guess that eliminates her being European.  Must be Chinese.

If you can teach a mantis to respond to flash cards for food then you can incorporate things like showing different amounts on the flash cards and train them to choose the higher amount to see if they can count such as in the bee experiment.  If all goes as planned they'll be doing your algebra...