Experimenting with feeders

[minomantis]

I’m curious if anyone has experimented with feeders to get desired colors from a mantis, just like one would buy certain fish foods to enhance the fishes color.

 I’m thinking you could get a fish food that promotes rich reds. Soak it and make a paste out of it with honey and feed it to flies or crickets a couple hours or days before feeding to the mantids. I wonder what the outcome would be? Has anyone ever tried this?

 

[hysteresis]

Phenotype aside, I've read its humidity and sunlight. That's it.

 

[hibiscusmile]

i have had a little luck  with making their habitat their colors.

 

[Synapze]

Please share the results; they could be very helpful to the entire community. 

Experiment with your least favorite mantis. 

 

[Lalapink]

Phenotype aside, I've read its humidity and sunlight. That's it.

no wonder my green mantis is turning brown. I keep her close to my grow light. I didn't expect mantis can get sun burn like plants and human.  

 

[MantisGirl13]

no wonder my green mantis is turning brown. I keep her close to my grow light. I didn't expect mantis can get sun burn like plants and human.  

Mantids cannot burn from the sun. I'm not sure where you got that from. 

Mantids may change colors over time depending on their surroundings, which are usually natural occurances. 

- MantisGirl13

 

[hysteresis]

" ... Comparing the data obtained from the field study with those from indoor housing, we see that the hot sun, low humidity and intense light of summer pro-mote the production of brown ground vegetation and brown mantids, more moderate temperatures promote higher humidity and low light intensity promotes green vegetation and mantids. But probably two other factors explain this colour distribution: predators detect and eat mantids that do not match the changing environmental colour and the mantids possibly actively prefer micro-habitats that match their own coloration. The colour of the substrate in the field should be con-sidered as a co-factor of the success of this strategy of M. religiosa but not its main direct cause. ..."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233852079_Colour_change_and_habitat_preferences_in_Mantis_religiosa

 

[hysteresis]

But no, you're right, @MantisGirl13. They don't 'sunburn'.

 

[MantisGirl13]

" ... Comparing the data obtained from the field study with those from indoor housing, we see that the hot sun, low humidity and intense light of summer pro-mote the production of brown ground vegetation and brown mantids, more moderate temperatures promote higher humidity and low light intensity promotes green vegetation and mantids. But probably two other factors explain this colour distribution: predators detect and eat mantids that do not match the changing environmental colour and the mantids possibly actively prefer micro-habitats that match their own coloration. The colour of the substrate in the field should be con-sidered as a co-factor of the success of this strategy of M. religiosa but not its main direct cause. ..."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233852079_Colour_change_and_habitat_preferences_in_Mantis_religiosa

Technically, the sun does not directly cause them to change color, the sun changes the vegetation color, which forces the mantis to adapt.

- MantisGirl13

 

[hysteresis]

Technically, the sun does not directly cause them to change color, the sun changes the vegetation color, which forces the mantis to adapt.

- MantisGirl13

"... The colour of the substrate in the field should be considered as a co-factor of the success of this strategy of M. religiosa but not its main direct cause. ..."

 

[hysteresis]

Its a co-factor in the survival strategy because the mantises seek according to their colour. The surroundings don't cause them to change colour to match anything. It's all sun and humidity. And phenotype.

The colour matching, is the mantis moving to areas according to its colour.

 

[MantisGirl13]

I give up. Lol

- MantisGirl13

 

[hysteresis]

I'll be deliberately exposing my orchids to a bit more sun. I heard that brings out pink and purple in them more than anything else.

 

[minomantis]

I think the biggest factors are the humidity and maybe how much sun. We don’t know what colors mantises can actually see. Heck, their coming out with studies now that dogs can see more colors than we originally thought, or was it octopuses?... anywho, a well known mantis hobbyist told me that the one they do to promote color is spray the enclosure everyday and keep humidity high to promote possible change. 

seems like when humidity is low, there is “one look” a mantis Can have, but high humidity allows the mantis to think plants are growing and insects will be plentiful so they can be a wide array of colors. 
I’m sure mantises can see color and I bet it’s more of how their surroundings reflect off of the sun because I’ve seen a mantis match the exact shade of a plant and the green may be three shades light than another green mantis which was on a different plant and it seems so intentional.

i know we have powerful lighting, but idk how well we as hobbyists can imitate the sun ya know like to the T. Seems like people will have more luck with just spraying more, add some color depending on what you want to see and crossing your fingers.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Its a co-factor in the survival strategy because the mantises seek according to their colour. The surroundings don't cause them to change colour to match anything. It's all sun and humidity. And phenotype.

The colour matching, is the mantis moving to areas according to its colour.

You think they are able to distinguish one color from another?  I subscribe to the more Darwinian notion:  In the wild, we rarely see mantids against a clashing background, because they've already been eaten.

 

[hysteresis]

You think they are able to distinguish one color from another?  I subscribe to the more Darwinian notion:  In the wild, we rarely see mantids against a clashing background, because they've already been eaten.

I dont think too much.

Just referencing a paper from others that think about it.

 

[hysteresis]

Here's another way to look at it though...

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2015/11/151107-animals-science-insects-bugs-colors-vision

 

[Introvertebrate]

Here's another way to look at it though...

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2015/11/151107-animals-science-insects-bugs-colors-vision

I gave it some more thought, and I think you're right.  Different mantid species appear to remain primarily in their corresponding environments.  Stick mantids hang out on sticks, dead leaf mantids are found near leaves, presumably orchid mantids can be observed near actual orchids.  Different species must have a way of determining which background suits them best.