A Mantis I've found

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FendersRule

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I found this Mantis in my garage about 2 weeks ago up in Idaho. I've been keeping him (I believe) ever since, providing him with some yummy food and water almost daily. Very easy pet to keep and take care of.

He doesn't fly as he doesn't have wings. He's probably around 2 inches in length; a bit on the smaller side.

Anyone have any information on sex, or on classification?





He loves spiders:



 
Make sure he can climb upside down for molting and he isnt an adult yet, i want to say hes a male S limbata but i really cant tell the species, but im almost positive hes a male.

 
That's great! Sounds like he's going to get bigger...since you don't think he's an adult yet?

He spends almost all of his time upside down hanging upside down in his case/cage.

He hasn't molted yet. He hasn't stopped eating whatever I put in there yet, either.

 
Cool!

So I should expect some hefty molting then.

When do I know that I shouldn't touch her? I mean, when is it obvious that she would be molting, and not just hanging upside just because that seems to be her preference?



This pic was taken over a week ago when I first caught her and kept her in a shoebox for a couple of days:



When will she be a full sized adult?

 
When a mantis has wings then it is an adult and will stay at that size for the rest of it's life (no more molting). A sub-adult means that your mantis has one more molt to go through before it gets it's wings and becomes an adult. Most mantis species take 7 molts to reach adulthood.

She will stop becoming interested in food when she about to molt (pre-molt) and her wing buds will be really swollen as well. When this happens just mist her some to increase the humidity to help her molt and then just leave her be to do her thing.

After she is done molting do not mess with her for a day (or 2 to be on the safe side) because she will have to recover some and dry out from her molt. After that time you can start to feed her again and she will be back to normal with a nice set of wings! :D

 
As mentioned above, she'll be getting ready to molt soon when those wing buds of hers puff up. After that, make sure she is able to hang upside-down the top of the cage before she molts (fyi: mantids are not able to molt on the ground).

 
I believe there's some emergency here.

I noticed that my mantis is lying on the ground. She isn't dead, but she is clearly molting. There' already a chunk of her skin laying on the ground, and it appears she's trying to climb up and move around. After I sprayed some misty water on her.

I don't really want to touch her. It appears that she may die. Is there anything I can do? I'd like to get her up to the top of the cage. Wonder how she fell down?

 
Good thing I had a twig in there. She was able to latch unto the twig while I raised it out of the cage. I've got it sitting on top of the cage now. She's on it, and hanging upside down. I was able to get her in the right position!

I laid some cheesecloth over the twig and the opening, and moved it in the closet. It appears that she'll be ok? What a tough mantis! I can already tell that she's going to be big! Is she going to be damaged?

I believe I should keep spraying water on her, correct?



 
Last edited by a moderator:
the water is optional because it could be good to increase humidity and if she drinks it it could help expand larger, i don't remember what it is that helps her do so, but its your call. maybe others will chime in and help?

 
This must be such a stressful time for an insect. Notice how she isn't even using her rear legs.

 
I wouldn't spray her directly while she is trying her best to "set" herself and not fall. :eek: That could bother her and make things worse. I am sure that she is already stressed out enough. You could just mist in a place close to her, for the humidity.

Any part of her may be damaged if she fell when she was soft. Only time will tell if she is OK.

Please keep us updated. :)

 

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