A chance encounter brings me back to the Mantid Forum...

[-MK-]

It's cool to see that many of the old guard are still around, as well as many newer members. I hope you've all been well.

A few weeks ago, I found what appeared to be an L1 Chinese nymph on the side of my house. I could barely believe my eyes, but I recognized the shape instantly. I managed to catch the little guy and bring him (I call them all "him" until they're big enough to count the abdominal segments) into the house despite him jumping from my hand a few times along the way. A short time later, I had him taking up residence in one of my old deli cups and eating fruit flies. Since then, he has molted to L2 and enjoyed eating a couple of mosquitoes as well. It's pretty cool that he could possibly be a descendant of the Chinese mantids I released in my backyard a few summers ago.

So I'll probably be here for a while with questions about my new little buddy - if I can manage to keep the collection to just one mantis this time.

 

[Paradoxica]

Well, welcome back.

 

[sally]

Haha, good luck keeping it at just one....

 

[Rick]

Welcome

 

[Birdman]

Welcome back from Florida

 

[fleurdejoo]

Howdy and cute!

 

[devetaki9]

You can't just have one lol

 

[Digger]

Yay! Said the same thing just a year ago. One. Only one. Never more than.....one.

I had over 600 hatch in environmental containers 5 weeks ago. :blink:

 

[ScienceGirl]

Welcome back, I look forward to seeing you around the forum and talking with you!

Sounds like you've had mantids before. Were they wild ones that you bred and released?

 

[-MK-]

Thanks for all the replies. He's L6 now and I'm pretty sure that he is in fact a "he" after looking at his abdomen. He also appears smaller than my females were at this stage after looking at some photos of my previous mantids.

@ScienceGirl: I ordered a few Chinese ooths a few summers ago and set most of the many nymphs free in my backyard after keeping them in an aquarium with a screen lid for about 10 days. I left a large fruit fly culture in there with them, so most of them chowed down on the flies instead of each other. Many of them molted to L2 during this time. Then, I took the aquarium outside and scattered the nymphs into the plants around the yard, leaving the fruit fly culture near them. It was pretty cool when I spotted one of them eating a small spider a week or two later, but that was the last mantis I saw in my yard until the one I have now. I kept a few nymphs from that first bunch and raised some of them to adulthood, but I didn't breed them.

 

[jrh3]

hello again.