I found one.... rather three!

[yeatzee]

I discovered that mine is a Plega Sp.

Not sure which one exactly though

 

[Peter Clausen]

Surprising to see those small hairs on the wings. Really great photos!

 

[yeatzee]

Thanks Peter!

Update: Good news - Both of my still living mantidflies have eaten. They were given a wide variety of insects to choose from, including blue bottle flies, small hoverflies, moths, etc. One skipped the hoverflies and other small flies and eventually went straight for the BB fly. The carcass had its feet scattered across the ground and very little of its abdomen left. The rest was still intact. The other mantidfly skipped everything and went for the small moth. Only wings were left

Maybe next time I will get to witness them hunting

 

[Tomato]

Thanks Peter!

Update: Good news - Both of my still living mantidflies have eaten. They were given a wide variety of insects to choose from, including blue bottle flies, small hoverflies, moths, etc. One skipped the hoverflies and other small flies and eventually went straight for the BB fly. The carcass had its feet scattered across the ground and very little of its abdomen left. The rest was still intact. The other mantidfly skipped everything and went for the small moth. Only wings were left

Maybe next time I will get to witness them hunting

If they're hungry they'll go for any bug you put in there as soon as you put it in. It's hilarous, Sensei swivels his head around, then his whole body, and his antennae start wiggling back and forth. I guess it's a bug's way of twiddling its fingers and licking its lips. The other day, I tried to feed him a long legged fly, but the fly lost a leg, so it couldn't fly and wasn't moving much. I knew Sensei would not eat it like that so I grabbed it by one of its legs with tweezers (which got it buzzing and flailing) and hand fed it to Sensei! He went straight for it. So much fun to watch!

BTW, what are you keeping them in? I'd love to see some photos of your enclosure.

-Tomato

 

[yeatzee]

If they're hungry they'll go for any bug you put in there as soon as you put it in. It's hilarous, Sensei swivels his head around, then his whole body, and his antennae start wiggling back and forth. I guess it's a bug's way of twiddling its fingers and licking its lips. The other day, I tried to feed him a long legged fly, but the fly lost a leg, so it couldn't fly and wasn't moving much. I knew Sensei would not eat it like that so I grabbed it by one of its legs with tweezers (which got it buzzing and flailing) and hand fed it to Sensei! He went straight for it. So much fun to watch!

BTW, what are you keeping them in? I'd love to see some photos of your enclosure.

-Tomato

I just moved them into those plastic 32 oz containers so I can clean and setup another enclosure for them. Nothing picture worthy.... yet.

 

[yeatzee]

Damn! Well all of them are dead, and I have no clue what I did wrong.

The species I have, rather had, is insanely fragile I guess

 

[LauraMG]

Damn! Well all of them are dead, and I have no clue what I did wrong.

The species I have, rather had, is insanely fragile I guess

Sorry to hear that! What a bummer!

At least you got some great pics of them

 

[Tomato]

no! Have you examined them? Any signs of anything?

At least now you can mount them or something.

-Tomato

 

[yeatzee]

no! Have you examined them? Any signs of anything?

At least now you can mount them or something.

-Tomato

No signs of anything wrong with them.... one day they were fine and the next morning they were on the bottom of the cage dead (both died at different days). They just ate too! <_<

Im going to set aside a day to go over to where I caught them and see if I can give it another shot. Maybe they were old ?

 

[robo mantis]

I see a decent amount of those. They are attracted to a spearmint my neighbors have. I've seen them mating on those and stuff. I kept one once and it at a fruit fly lol! I didn't know the spider thing!

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Today my mom yelled at me to come over and look at this bug. At first it looked just like any ordinary lacewing, but upon closer inspection it was clear this was a Zeugomantispa minuta! Beautiful green mantisfly and absolutely the most fascinating insect I've come across.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

.... And she just laid a bunch of eggs. So... now what?

 

[massaman]

they wont hatch unless they were put on a spiders egg sac or they need to be on their eggs or on a spider maybe to hatch out they develop in a spiders egg sac and the larvae eat the eggs of the spiders if I am not mistaken!