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Sad news. Venus, my favorite of my h. venosa, had a bad fall somehow. I was at a friend's house this weekend and didn't see it happen. Her abdomen got badly damaged, and while I hoped she'd power through, she was fading yesterday and I had to give her the freezer treatment. I actually cried, she...

Guess who's all grown uuuuup  Xia is a gorgeous adult now, and very happy to sit on my hand for glamour shots. 

I have three, but I haven't named them yet. I'm waiting until I can reliably sex them and tell them apart before I pick names ;P 

Thank-you!! <3 I'm keeping an eye on your sweet pea posts because my orchids are about two weeks behind yours, so i'll kind of know what to expect. ;)

Time for an update!  The four h. venosa girls are subadults, and thriving. Nefertiti:  Boadicea:  Venus: And last but not least, Sekhmet:  My two tenodera sinensis are now also subadults. Xia:  And Song:  And finally, all three of my little orchids molted last night! Cute...

It looks like a fruit fly, not a mantis! I would lose it immediately lol

Recieved three orchids from Mikhail. So smol. So perf. Lowkey life dream achieved  I gotta take more pics of the h. venosas I got from mantismonarch, too, they are turning out STUNNING

Ordered two orchid mantises, received THREE! <3 All alive and healthy, and beautifully packed. :)

So cuuuuuuuuuuute

Ooh, when my mantids die, if they're in good shape, i'll definitely be in contact! <3 Welcome to the forum!

help i am being threatened

My two surviving t. sinensis are now sub-adults!  This is Xia (the one who had the bum legs a couple weeks ago):  And Song:  I believe they are both females! 

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! She (he?) molted to subadult today. LOOK AT THOSE BEAUTIFUL, STRAIGHT BACK LEGS. LOOK AT THEM.  Her skin was pale so I knew she would molt soon. I made sure her enclosure was extra moist, and I fairly covered the interior in mesh so she'd have lots of grip spots. It took...

Update: She's still doing well! Even hunting on her own. I was feeding her with tongs but accidentally dropped a cricket into her enclosure and she was able to catch it herself before I could pick it back up! So I dropped another and BOOM she caught it, too. Her back legs still flail around a...

Ghosts are supposed to be good beginner mantids! I'm like you, though, I NEED an orchid at some point... right now i'm raising some h. venosa (who are also supposed to be good for beginners) and some sinensis (who definitely aren't! So many mismolts D: ) 

I was lucky enough to receive some BEAUTIFUL h. venosa nymphs from Mantis Monarch! I took a few pics of them out in the sunlight, their colors are unreal. This is Venus, my favorite:  I can't wait to watch them grow! <3

OUUF that is a relief. She's my favorite feisty one and I want her to liiiive. (I have no idea if it's a she, btw, feel free to tell me I'm totally wrong; I only have practice at sexing adult mantids.) 

She's also able to move her back legs down to the toes, although they are splayed out weirdly. She's even been grooming off the skin i missed: 

Some photos so y'all have a better idea of what I'm dealing with. This was her right when i noticed she had mismolted. I put her on a damp paper towel and fed her while i tried to fiddle with her legs. Got a lot of the excess skin off but couldn't quite manage all of it.  Here she is after I...

Yeah, I'm worried. She does seem to be getting around okay so far, and her appetite is good (fed her a cricket with some tongs and her raptors are working fine) but I'll just have to wait and see if it resolves itself. Her legs seem to have hardened in a pretty useless position, sadly.