Firenkyo's Mantids

[Firenkyo]

This is my mantis! They're a jewel flower mantis - not sure of the sex yet. I think that they're on i4? I've named them Minty!
I purchased them from mantisuniverse.com.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Looks like a female to me, but I would need a clear and close pic of the abdomen.

 

[Firenkyo]

Looks like a female to me, but I would need a clear and close pic of the abdomen.

I'm not sure if I can get a good picture with my phone - I'll try later! How can you tell?
I was just going to wait until they molted into their adult form to tell lol.

 

[Synapze]

Cute!

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Male mantises have 7-8 abdominal segments, while females have 5-6 (Usually). A females abdomen ends in an upward pointing triangle like shape, while males end with an upward pointing cup. Females sometimes have slightly more molts than males, but for some species, that is not the case. Did you know that mantises actually have 5 eyes? The smaller eyes are called Ocelli. A male mantis’s ocelli are larger and easier to see, while females are tiny, and quite hard to see on some species. Ocelli are located between the compound eyes, usually in between and sometimes slightly below the antenna. As adults, males are the same size, or slightly smaller that the females. Males have wings that reach past the end of the abdomen, while females have wings that are shorter than, or the same length as their abdomens (with some exceptions). I will include some pictures when I get a chance. I have 5+ years of experience in mantis keeping, so if you have any questions feel free to message me.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Males also have longer, thicker antennae.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

The following are videos of adult Creobroter sp. Giant. Yours looks to be a Creobroter gemmatus . I’ll send some pictures of those in a minute or two.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Adult male. Some things to notice are how long and thick his antennae are. Look how far the wings extend past the abdomen. Also look at the cup shaped end of his abdomen. Notice how his physique is quite thin?

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Adult female. Notice how thick her physique is compared to the males? Look at the downward pointing triangle at the end of her body, and also how her wings reach only the end of her abdomen. Can you see how thin her antennae are? They are so thin they are hard to see.

 

[Firenkyo]

Male mantises have 7-8 abdominal segments, while females have 5-6 (Usually). A females abdomen ends in an upward pointing triangle like shape, while males end with an upward pointing cup. Females sometimes have slightly more molts than males, but for some species, that is not the case. Did you know that mantises actually have 5 eyes? The smaller eyes are called Ocelli. A male mantis’s ocelli are larger and easier to see, while females are tiny, and quite hard to see on some species. Ocelli are located between the compound eyes, usually in between and sometimes slightly below the antenna. As adults, males are the same size, or slightly smaller that the females. Males have wings that reach past the end of the abdomen, while females have wings that are shorter than, or the same length as their abdomens (with some exceptions). I will include some pictures when I get a chance. I have 5+ years of experience in mantis keeping, so if you have any questions feel free to message me.

This is really informative, thank you! I've seen the ocelli on other insects and pictures of larger mantises, but never looked too close at my own to see them! I have a digital microscope, so I think I'll try to get Minty under it later today to take some pictures. I was planning on using that wing difference to sex them once they reached their adult stage - I remember reading about the abdominal differences and deciding I'd wait until the adult form. I had no idea about the ocelli and antennae differences.

Also, the mantises in the videos are gorgeous! I assume that they're yours?

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Yep they were mine , sadly she ate my only male at the time before I could mate her.

 

[Firenkyo]

I don't know if these pictures will help, but they're pretty cute. Unfortunately they're grainy because I was taking pictures of the microscope screen, and had to screenshot them so they'd meet the file limit here. I uploaded them to imgur as well for better quality. The links will be beneath the image they correspond to!

And sorry about your male!

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Those pictures help a lot. Little Minty is definitely a male! I’ll show you why once I get a minute (so you can tell easier in the future).

 

[Montana_Mantids]

I know, I wish my male survived, but I guess it’s just nature. I’ll send you some Creobroter gemmatus adult pictures once I get a chance.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Circle near the head shows the thick antennae. The oval shows the abdominal segments. Another thing to notice with the segments is If you look at the very last segment, for females it is the largest and most prominent, while for males it’s the smallest and sometimes the hardest to see. The circle inside the oval shows the upward pointing cup like shape at the end of his abdomen.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Photo dump coming up:

 

[Montana_Mantids]

 

[Montana_Mantids]

 

[Firenkyo]

They're all beautiful! I love the wing spots so much.

I was hoping for Minty to be female so I'd have a bit more time with him, but as long as he stays healthy I'll just be glad to have him. Once he graduates to his enclosure I think I'll order another nymph (maybe a budwing or ghost?) and I'll totally use the tips you gave me to get a better guess at the sex!

Is there a difference in keeping adult male vs female mantises? I saw on a couple other threads here that males eat less often.

 

[Montana_Mantids]

Besides eating less often like you mentioned, there isn’t really a difference, although Minty may be way more jumpy and eager to fly.