Alexander's Mantids: 2012 - Present

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While I owned the B. mendica, the P. agrionina and the P. spurca, I tried again at buying Idolomantis diabolica. I purchsed them from Bartek. I ordered 5, but due to the extremely long shipment, and the fact that they were shipped in only 2 separate containers, only one made the trip, and was puking when I received it and died two days later. I'd named him/her Lucky, but it turned out not to be very lucky at all.

lucky__l2_idolomantis_diabolica_by_alexandersmantids-d7felbp.jpg


 
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Being extremely disappointed about my situation with the Idolos, I purchased some Deroplatys lobata at L2 from a user here named Aryia. I'd purchased 2, but she sent me an extra for free! I'd named them Lobataton, Platysil and Derotor. All related to the species name as you can see.

Lobataton died very unexpectedly at L4. I'd had her in the window with all my other mantids and an hour later found her dead in her container. I assume that the heat was too much for her. It struck me as odd because my other D. lobata were in the same window and all housed in the same type of container with a net lid.

l4_deroplatys_lobata__lobataton__eating__2__by_alexandersmantids-d7o7dt2.jpg


 
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I seem to have forgotten some mantids. On my 20th birthday, we went to Cape Cod (MA), where I'd found a fertile Tenodera sinensis ootheca (nice birthday gift huh?). It hatched about three weeks later, and I kept two of the nymphs. One I'd let my father name; he decided on "Curious George", LOL. She turned out to be female so I called her "Curious". Her full name became "Curious Georgina". The other one I kept I named Zeep, and he turned out to be male. Curious fell on her last molt and the damage was so horrible, she couldn't even hold herself up. I often saw her with her face in the dirt. It was quite horrible. Call me cruel, but I froze her. Zeep made it to adulthood.

Curious:

curious_george__l2__tenodera_sinensis__by_alexandersmantids-d68arsn.jpg


curious__l5_tenodera_sinensis_female_on_sticks_by_alexandersmantids-d6criug.jpg


curious__colorful__by_alexandersmantids-d6etwq1.jpg


Zeep:

zeep__l1_unsexed_tenodera_sinensis_by_alexandersmantids-d6874k2.jpg


zeep__tenodera_sinensis_male_l7__defense_pose_by_alexandersmantids-d6gisdw.jpg


zeep_has_long_anntennae_l7_male_t__sinensis_eating_by_alexandersmantids-d6eu1fc.jpg


 
Around the time I purchased my D. lobata, I also found a lot of Tenodera sinensis oothecae by my home (we moved). I'd spotted 20, and kept 10. I sold some, and hatched the rest. I released a lot of nymphs as well. I kept some for myself from 2 of the oothecae. Ferdinand, Paully, Cheech, Chong, Saunder and Mori.

Ferdinand was male and made it to adulthood. I'd tried mating him with Cheech but with no success (I was later informed by LAME that he'd read that related sinensis aren't usually interested in each other! And none of the males were that I'd had. Until I found a wild caught male, who mated with all my females plus LAME's all-popular female, Echo).

ferdinand_is_now_an_adult__male_t__sinensis_by_alexandersmantids-d7rinyh.jpg


Paully was also male and made it to adulthood:

_9__adult_male_tenodera_sinensis__paully_by_alexandersmantids-d7tp6rj.jpg


Cheech was female and made it to adulthood, and was never mated with, as the males refused:

cheech__adult_female_tenodera_sinensis_by_alexandersmantids-d7tad66.jpg


Chong was male, and was the only one to actually penetrate Cheech. But only for about five second; he ended up jumping off quite quickly. I tried again a couple weeks later and Cheech had bitten through his thorax, and I was unable to save him after that:

chong_is_now_an_adult__male_t__sinensis_by_alexandersmantids-d7rpqjz.jpg


Saunder was female and died at L6, the day after I fed her a cricket (puking, diarrhea). I'm not sure what it is, but I've had horrible luck after feeding my mantids crickets. I avoid them at this point.

l6_saunder_female__tenodera_sinensis_by_alexandersmantids-d7nywtl.jpg


I wasn't sure of Mori's sex but he/she died at L4, unexpectedly. No puking or anything. I just woke up and he/she was dead. I'd fed him/her a wild-caught cockroach the night before, maybe that had something to do with it? I took a photo of a black spot on her abdomen, wondering if that was related. And how it got there, and what it is.

mori____deceased_by_alexandersmantids-d7mxj2g.jpg


(I'm sorry for posting such a sad photo of a deceased mantid but I'm hoping one of you may be able to give me an idea as to what that black spot is.)

 
There were also a bunch of wild Tenodera sinensis that I caught. Arkon, Tenosa, Pleakley, Lord Ess, Mantella, Goliath, Emerald, Dracula and Fitz.

Arkon was male and died at L6 of unknown causes:

_5__l6_male_tenodera_sinensis__arkon_by_alexandersmantids-d7tp588.jpg


Tenosa was female and I released her back into the wild once she was older:

tenosa__l6_female_tenodera_sinensis_by_alexandersmantids-d7t18pl.jpg


Pleakley was also female and I released her back into the wild once she was older as well:

_7__l5_female_tenodera_sinensis__pleakley_by_alexandersmantids-d7tp5x9.jpg


Lord Ess I thought was female at first because he was so big compared to my other mantids. But he turned out just to be a large male! He's the one that mated with me and LAME's females.

lord_ess__m__and_goliath__f__mating_by_alexandersmantids-d7z7n2j.jpg


Mating with Goliath.

adult_male_tenodera_sinensis__lord_ess_by_alexandersmantids-d80j6ar.jpg


(I'd fed them pinheads crickets which for some reason were never detrimental, unlike the adults.)



Mating with LAME's Echo.

Mantella was female and mismolted at L6:

l6_female_tenodera_sinensis__mantella_by_alexandersmantids-d7us183.jpg


Goliath was my favorite. She was the biggest mantid I've ever owned to this day. She was just under 4" (going from head to anus. Counting her legs, more like 5"). Lord Ess mated with her and I'm currently incubating her ootheca.



Adult.

Emerald was a female that I found as an adult. I was out looking for feeders and saw her in a mist of bumble bees. She was staring at me and sticking her arms out, trying to be a stick. She was a reactive/defensive one!



TBC

 
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It's fun reading about Lord Ess - it is pretty amazing how large some male T. sinensis can be!

Last summer, I had a CB adult female T. sinensis, which was barely more than 3 inches long for some odd reason. While taking a walk in a local park, I kept an eye out for any males. To my surprise, I found a huge male T. sinensis in a grassy area, larger than any Chinese mantis I had ever seen. My first thought was that he would probably cannibalize my poor female, given his size. And I wasn't able to catch him anyways, since he flew away quickly and landed in some branches high above.

 
PlayingMantis said:
It's fun reading about Lord Ess - it is pretty amazing how large some male T. sinensis can be!

Last summer, I had a CB adult female T. sinensis, which was barely more than 3 inches long for some odd reason. While taking a walk in a local park, I kept an eye out for any males. To my surprise, I found a huge male T. sinensis in a grassy area, larger than any Chinese mantis I had ever seen. My first thought was that he would probably cannibalize my poor female, given his size. And I wasn't able to catch him anyways, since he flew away quickly and landed in some branches high above.
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Yeah my CB female, Cheech, was 3". One wild female I caught was 3 1/2" and the other was just under 4"! Lord Ess was a bit bigger than Cheech. I didnt risk breeding them lol.. He was too big for her!

 
I just went back and looked at the photos I have of Echo & Lord Ess mating. Seriously, he was a big male.. I'd say nearly 3/4 Echo's size and she was 4 inches on the dot. (measured her when she was adult...)

 
LAME said:
I just went back and looked at the photos I have of Echo & Lord Ess mating. Seriously, he was a big male.. I'd say nearly 3/4 Echo's size and she was 4 inches on the dot. (measured her when she was adult...)
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Yeah he was my biggest male sinensis ever lol! i didnt even check his reproductive organs when i captured him, i immediately thought he was female cause he was even bigger than my captive raised female.

 
Continued...

Dracula was a female I also found as an adult. Or, to be specific, that my mom spotted. We were in the car and she said, "there's a mantis crossing the road!" and indeed there was! She backed up and I took her. She had beautiful green eyes. I let my sister name her.



And lastly for the Tenodera, there was Fitz. He was an adult male that I found quite late. There had been quite a few cold days. I was surprised to have found him. He was in my driveway. I named him Fitz... He died two days later.



 
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While my Deroplatys lobata were younger (Derotor and Platysil) I also bought a Texas Unicorn Mantis (Phyllovates chlorophaea) from Peter at Bugsincyberspace.com. I named her Vates. She is still living. She is about 9 months old.











Around this stage, I'd fed her an adult cricket. She started puking and I was thinking she wouldn't make it. But she did! For the first few days, she couldn't keep even honey or water down. I kept her away from the heat lamps, so as not to over stimulate her, or dehydrate her even further. Eventually she started taking water and honey. And LAME suugested I put honey on a prey item, which I did. She ended up eating it! And after that she was all better. Amazing.




She got scared by a mealworm!

 
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Thank you for sharing I love to read threads like these it always interesting to see others experiences with mantis breeding and the species I hope to keed and raise to abult hood. Hope to see more as you continue to grow and learn in this hobby

 
Vates is definitely one of the favorite species of mine that you've owned thus far... She's a beautiful little thing. Really wish we could get you a mate to keep her going for generations, id love to have one of her offspring. ;)

 
dmina said:
Yes, it is... I am surprised there are not more around...I would love to have some...
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Ikr?? They're so hard to find. I'm glad I got her from Peter while he had them! I wish I had a male badly, Id love to breed her.

 
baskmantids said:
Thank you for sharing I love to read threads like these it always interesting to see others experiences with mantis breeding and the species I hope to keed and raise to abult hood. Hope to see more as you continue to grow and learn in this hobby
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Youre welcome! Haha I am loving making this thread. Ive been wanting to get it going for a while now. LAME helped me out by telling me how to post photos using the photobucket method! Im glad you enjoy! thanks!

 

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