Thanks Giosan, the female grass mantis is wingless just like a stick but the male has wing and fly well. However, the AZ grasshopper mantis has no wing at all on either adult male or female.
The new road (Simpang Pulai) going up to Cameron Highlands from Ipoh also provide new hunting ground. Along the way,the forest is good place to collect mantids. Try beat the tree and bushes with a long net and some small,medium and large mantids wil fall into the net. Or you could bring a large white sheet of cloth for easy spotting when the bugs fall to the ground. These mantids are not collected by the aborigines as they have no value, especially when they are at nymph stage with no dried collection value.
If you need more info, PM me. I don't wanna bore other members here with story from CH. Remember the hunting ground there in CH is very different than here in arid Arizona or subtropical Texas.
Before moving on to more bug hunt pics. I was told of species name for few bugs.
One of my Yersiniops adult male die and i sent it to the Texas A&M curator. He think the species i have is Yersiniops sophronica.
Apparently, the "Disney" velvet ant from Arizona is a very rare specimen. It is of Pseudomethoca quadrinotata
Here it is again
While the small red velvet ant found in Houston is of the Timulla sp. which is more common.
Last trip to the park before sending Christian to the airport.
Fond a very large spider. It was early in the morning.
zooming in
Hey another fresh S. carolina ooth....
small lizard
Can't find any mantis for hours bummer so i follow Christian to check out some ants. I was knocking on a tree with some holes and all of the sudden lot of large interesting ants emerging from the holes... obviously the disturbed ants was trying to defend themselves and coming right at me. So i leave them alone after Chris told me that we will have to cut down the tree to dig up the queen..... errr not very possible although Chris would love to have the queen.
But then Chris was rewarded with a large wasp like queen ant later on! another queen..... he is a happy man, and we left the park with mosquitoe bites on every single limb. Itch like heck......
I lived with my sister in PJ SS2 area for a year before buying a condominium in OUG Hill (Bukit OUG) at Kuala Lumpur. Is the popular PJ food stall (near SS2) still there? I really missed the food! Good luck on your bug hunt trip.Not from KL actually, I'm from PJ. Going to Cameron next month with a friend for a bug hunting trip. This topic motivated me.
There is no particular places where plentiful insects can be found. Luck and right timing, together with experience and keen eyes play important role. June is a good time as most insects are in season. If you use the old Tapah route, try mile 19th-Tapah-Cameron Highlands road. During day time, check out some fruit trees with ripe fruits, these attract insects which provide foods for mantis. Wild banana and papaya trees are good target for large green mantis. You can also find mantis around gardens in CH booming with flowers. Dead leaf or other cryptive mantis is a little more tricky as they blend very well with surrounding, you need luck and a very keen eyes to spot them. At night, look under street lamp post or building with flourescents light and you might see sometimes a coommon mantids, but moths and beetles are most likely what you wil be encountered.
The new road (Simpang Pulai) going up to Cameron Highlands from Ipoh also provide new hunting ground. Along the way,the forest is good place to collect mantids. Try beat the tree and bushes with a long net and some small,medium and large mantids wil fall into the net. Or you could bring a large white sheet of cloth for easy spotting when the bugs fall to the ground. These mantids are not collected by the aborigines as they have no value, especially when they are at nymph stage with no dried collection value.
If you need more info, PM me. I don't wanna bore other members here with story from CH. Remember the hunting ground there in CH is very different than here in arid Arizona or subtropical Texas.
Before moving on to more bug hunt pics. I was told of species name for few bugs.
One of my Yersiniops adult male die and i sent it to the Texas A&M curator. He think the species i have is Yersiniops sophronica.
Apparently, the "Disney" velvet ant from Arizona is a very rare specimen. It is of Pseudomethoca quadrinotata
Here it is again
While the small red velvet ant found in Houston is of the Timulla sp. which is more common.
Last trip to the park before sending Christian to the airport.
Fond a very large spider. It was early in the morning.
zooming in
Hey another fresh S. carolina ooth....
small lizard
Can't find any mantis for hours bummer so i follow Christian to check out some ants. I was knocking on a tree with some holes and all of the sudden lot of large interesting ants emerging from the holes... obviously the disturbed ants was trying to defend themselves and coming right at me. So i leave them alone after Chris told me that we will have to cut down the tree to dig up the queen..... errr not very possible although Chris would love to have the queen.
But then Chris was rewarded with a large wasp like queen ant later on! another queen..... he is a happy man, and we left the park with mosquitoe bites on every single limb. Itch like heck......
