I Got Another Mini Mantis

[Krissim Klaw]

Some of you might remember a topic a posted a year back of one of my boy Stagmomantis carolina that skipped a shedding, resulting in a mini sized adult. Well, it just happened again only this time with a female Stagmomantis carolina. I was expecting Trumpet, one of my precious little ladies, to shed to sub-adult only for her to shed to adulthood. Just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I decided to wait for her sister from the same ootheca to also have her next shedding and sure enough her sister shed to a sub-adult. Thus I am left staring at a mini adult that is about the size of a normal sub-adult for the species. :wub:

I know it is practically criminal to post a topic about an adorable mini mantis and not include any photos, but I do plan to take some in a couple of days. I wanted to wait for her sister to have a chance to fully harden so I can take some photos of them together to best show off the unusual size discrepancy.

 

[crabbypatty]

@Krissim Klaw Wow amazing! Can't wait for pics!

 

[Zeppy44]

Interesting the variables that show if you raise enough to get comparisons. I would imagine in the wild the really small would not make it to adult under most cases.

Waiting as patient as I can for pics.

 

[Jessie]

Im pretty sure my bugsey is a mini one to. I looked up males for chinese smaller then those.

 

[crabbypatty]

I've heard of mantids skipping molts straight to adulthood. Some go through all the molts but are small for an adult mantis of its species. Yours @Jessie is just a smaller adult, you've shown me pics and it molted from pre sub to sub to adult. Idk what causes the molt skipping though, very interesting. 

 

[Teamonger]

I might have one male that skipped a molt as well. To be fair I lost count on many of them due to shear numbers but I was sure he had two molts left and he's about half the size of all my other adults. He's adorable regardless of how he became a runt but its interesting to know they can skip a molt. I'll have to pay more attention in the future just to be sure, FOR SCIENCE!

I'll try to add my own comparison photo tomorrow just for fun and cuteness.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

@crabbypatty @Zeppy44 @Jessie @Teamonger

Sorry for the sluggish update. Here are some photos of my pretty girl.

First off one of Trumpet (on the right) with her sub-adult sister (on the left) who is only a few days younger than her. As you can see her sister who is only a sub-adult is if anything a little larger than her in length.

Next up I have a photo of her with an adult male of the same species. With the size difference I find it really questionable if a mating could even take place successfully.

Finally just a nice little photo of her pretty self on some leaves. Minus her miniature stature she seems proportionally fairly normal.

 

[roadglide16]

Awesome, never seen that mutation (or molt skipping) before.  Thanks for sharing

 

[crabbypatty]

@Krissim Klaw omg she's adorable! Hmm, about mating, idk, shes really tiny. I suppose you can try, it wouldn't hurt. Wow pretty amazing though, keep us updated!

 

[Sarah K]

she's so cute!

 

[cwebster]

They are adorable! Just had two tiny ones hatch today. Hope melanogasters are not too big for them. Would springtails be better? 

 

[hibiscusmile]

I have a male budwing doing that, so weird.