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maneatingmoo

maneatingmoo

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Michigan lower peninsula
I checked on one of my mantids today, and it has wings. It's alot bigger now too. So does this mean it's an adult? I think it's a female, and I would like to be able to get baby mantids. For some reason, the other one hasn't shed it's skin since I found it, even though I found them both on the same day.

 
Once they have wings, they are adult. I don't think they need to shed at the same time, depends on how much it eats, etc. I have a question, though - I found a mantis yesterday in my yard that is bright green like your avatar - European mantis - what is the difference between the European mantis and the Chinese mantis? The ootheca we hatched and released into our yard were all Chinese mantids (some brown w/ a green stripe on its wings and some that are yellowish/tannish), so I was surprised to see this bright green one. He is sub-adult, I see wing buds. Just curious what the difference is if anyone on the board can describe for me, thanks. I live in Northern California.

 
Chinese mantids are larger and are more often (at least to me) a tan color. Also, they are missing the black and white spot in the middle of the raptorial arms like the European. I'm sure there are some comparison pics on this forum.

 
It's been my experience that the Chinese (which is all I've ever raised) have a fairly diverse set of appearances. Color morphology will differ even between siblings; it's not uncommon, for instance, for some of the brothers and sisters from the same ootheca to be all green or all brown.

The foreleg spot is the best way to sort out European from Chinese.

 
Headspace said:
It's been my experience that the Chinese (which is all I've ever raised) have a fairly diverse set of appearances. Color morphology will differ even between siblings; it's not uncommon, for instance, for some of the brothers and sisters from the same ootheca to be all green or all brown.The foreleg spot is the best way to sort out European from Chinese.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I had a chinese ooth hatch and the siblings ended up turning mostly tan (because I had sand as a subtrate), but I also ended up with some greener ones, and even a purple one. Though they all died.

 
The other one just shedded yesterday, and now it has wings too. They've changed color a bit, from green to more of a yellowish color. They both have a brown stripe down the edge of their wings. Is that normal?

 
so it turns out that the mantis I found in my yard is the European mantis - I checked the black/white spot on the forearm and there it was! he still has a shed to go before adult. pretty cool that i found him since i assumed he was one of the Chinese mantids that I released into the yard in the spring. if i could figure out how to post a pic, i would. but, the pics i got of him do not show his forearm spot since he was eating a fly.

 
I have an ant mantid which is very, very active. When I put her on my hand, she climbs up my arm and jumps onto my head in about 10 seconds. :blink:

 

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