That was not my intention. I was just a it surprised that a non-Empusidae can tolerate each other so well - with a lot of food and some space they seem to do just fine.
Cannibalistic or Communal?
- Thread starter superfreak
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Yeah. thats about right about these guys. my nephew and i use to sit there and watch them go at it. I know it seems cruel but by the time we knew what was going on it had already begun!!!! this was the first time I had to incubate an ooth and made the mistake of incubating them in a 15gal. tank. they did well at L1 but at L2 and up it was every mantid for itself!!! There would be mantid parts left all over the place. We hot glued a screen all around the walls of the tank for them to perch on and would find arms, legs, HEADS and such just hanging in the screen. We'd find them attacking each other for the mantid they had already began to eat. One little dude would yak another and begin eating it and just as it got it's mandibles in there here comes another little dude and grabs the partially eaten mantid from the first one. We'd see this going on all over the place as well as them knocking each other off of their perches. One would get comfortable and here comes another and would run up or jump over and knock the other off of it's place and vice verse!!!! Funny little dudes!!!!
This plus a lot of space - Idolomorpha and Gongylus would sometimes attack molting nymphs - when it gets crowded, things usually get ugly pretty fast.
