i want this mantis..Idolomantis diabolica?

[Morpheus uk]

They are even worse at lower instars, yes you can keep them together but its not worth it with a low amount as in they often have a go at each other here and there if food drops down a little

 

[Mantida]

Aw, I'm sorry Yen. Was she almost dead when you found her on the floor?

Geez. That threat posture is beautiful.

I really want to try rearing this species... but a little voice inside my head tells me I'm going to fail miserably.

 

[yen_saw]

sorry to here that yen..i want these so bad..so they live toghther>?if i where to get a big tent like yours..a big plant with lots of wooden branches..a heat light and make sure there hot all the time and lots of flys..am i missing any thing out?i want to get a ooth in summer time and give them a go...do u ship to uk? do u think if i put an order in now for an ooth u could have 1 for me just before the summer time next year.great pic by the way.

Yea no problem, i expect casualty, just trying to bring it down as much as possible and share the experience here.

I have about 30 nymphs together, have one 60W right outside the cage and another 40 W bulb inside the cage. i let them cool down to about 65-70F at night to simulate the actual condition in the wild. But hot during daytime and plenty of flies yeah. You will also need to find out where the stock originally from. As for getting the ooth, there has been a whole lot of discussion on this before.

Aw, I'm sorry Yen. Was she almost dead when you found her on the floor?Geez. That threat posture is beautiful.

I really want to try rearing this species... but a little voice inside my head tells me I'm going to fail miserably.

She wasn't dead yet when i found her lying on the bottom. But end her misery in freezer.

Well i wasn't quick enough to take those threat post from live ones so guess i can only do it with the dead one :lol:

You can give it a try after keeping few other species. We need more breeders to share the experience here. I have no shame at all if they fail to breed for me, my aim is to share the sucess or failure regardless, and enjoy the process of growing and hopefully breeding too.

 

[nympho]

i tried keeping idolomantis once but both eventually failed as subs due to lost grip of the hind leg claws. they missed prey and impaled the front legs on the mesh, and must have pulled forward and strained the hind claws so they stopped gripping. i did see this happen a few times. i was using steel mesh which is generally bad [even asians got stuck sometimes]. how about using a glass vivarium filled with twigs but turned sideways so it has a glass 'ceiling'. this would force the idolos to only use twigs as perches when they move up to the top [as they do] and also trap more heat. apart from the grip prob i thoght they were easy to keep. but they seem to take ages between moults which gives plenty of time for any issues. i just fed em wild bluebottles - easy to catch on sunny days even in winter .

 

[yen_saw]

This losing grips issue is worrying me, i am trying different methods here and see if that works. I have one group in live monarch net cages, another group in net cage with modified top screen using pantyhose, and another one with about three subadult females in coconut fiber top. Will keep the update here.

nympho, i agree metal screen is not a good ideal for idolomantis.

Below are few pics of the coconut fibers sheet and the setup i did few days ago.

hot glue to the top of the net cage

Pic below is not the final setup, i added a pot with branches reaching to the top of fiber sheet, just in case the glue fail and sheet fall down.

 

[Matthewtinnion]

Hey Yen, any updates on your setup? Its been great following this thread..

I was thinking about these mesh containers that your using and the worry about the mantids shedding from the mesh roof... would it not be possible to turn the net cage so that the clear plastic side became the roof, therby stopping the mantids from being able to climb there in the first place? (you would then substitue with sticks) Im thinking about buying some of these cages as one of my Idolos fell from the mesh without even trying to shed yesterday(it was fine btw).

What are your thoughts about that?

Mat.

 

[macro junkie]

dam it i want one of them tents.,,yen//how about when you open the door..have u got 20 flys flying round your house?lol

 

[yen_saw]

Hey Yen, any updates on your setup? Its been great following this thread..I was thinking about these mesh containers that your using and the worry about the mantids shedding from the mesh roof... would it not be possible to turn the net cage so that the clear plastic side became the roof, therby stopping the mantids from being able to climb there in the first place? (you would then substitue with sticks) Im thinking about buying some of these cages as one of my Idolos fell from the mesh without even trying to shed yesterday(it was fine btw).

What are your thoughts about that?

Mat.

Yeah been busy and only have time to throw in the flies. Yesterday i decided to clean up the cage and finally but took a few pics. Here is one of them.

The idolo group in the pic are kept in the regular net cages, they are some subadult and pre-subadult, most of the male are subadult stage while only couple of female are subadult as other females still 2 molts away. My guess is female need one extra molt to mature. So far i only have 2 casualty from this batch that hatched during shipment, one from mismoulting and the second one just drop dead. and all the specimen molted out alright into subadult from either the net cages or pantyhose, But i am not taking a risk assuming that the net cage will work perfectly for the last stage of molting. Thanks for the suggestion on using the plastic side as roofing. What i did was clipped some branches on the roof of net cages after cleaning up the cage, it appear to be alright so far as the diolomantis doesn't ming hanging on the branches as long as they are upside down (man their world must be upside down :lol: )

dam it i want one of them tents.,,yen//how about when you open the door..have u got 20 flys flying round your house?lol

Yeah it is annoying MJ!! care to help me swat some flies while i am feeding hte mantis?

 

[Kruszakus]

Man - I have this problem all the times - If I use a container which can be altered (glass tank won't do the trick) - then I just cut out a hole in its side, and then I drop "sleepy" flies through the hole - I seal it afterwards, and there seem to be no problem whatsoever with flies escaping from their impending death.

 

[tier]

Hi

Yen, keeping your subadult males dry should make them stay subadult for about two month. This could be a way to make sure you will get some pairs ready to mate at the same time, which is always a big problem with Idolomantis. Most of my adult males were already dead when the females started to offer pheromones. Females need 3-6 weeks after the adult molting till they become ready to mate.

Best regards,

tier

 

[AFK]

crazy pic. it's like all the world's entomological awesome stuffed into one tiny box. concentrated badassness!

 

[AFK]

also, that's pretty ungrateful of them to ignore all the time and energy you spent in setting up that elaborate set up of branches and just hang right above them.

would removing all the branches somehow affect the mantises even though they seem to completely ignore them?

 

[tier]

Yes.

While molting adult on the mesh screen, they wont' fall down 10cm till they reach branches, but they will fall down 80cm to the bottom of the enclosure ;-)

 

[yen_saw]

HiYen, keeping your subadult males dry should make them stay subadult for about two month. This could be a way to make sure you will get some pairs ready to mate at the same time, which is always a big problem with Idolomantis. Most of my adult males were already dead when the females started to offer pheromones. Females need 3-6 weeks after the adult molting till they become ready to mate.

Best regards,

tier

Thanks for the info. Does all adult male live a short live? i thought male is supposed to live for about 3-5 months as adult?

also, that's pretty ungrateful of them to ignore all the time and energy you spent in setting up that elaborate set up of branches and just hang right above them.would removing all the branches somehow affect the mantises even though they seem to completely ignore them?

Actually there are some left in the branches too, but most of them prefer the roof. I clipped some branches from the top yesterday after cleaning up and they are hanging on the branches alright. and 4 female and 1 male molted into subadult alright the same night, i saw 2 molts hung up on the net and three on the floor. So this netting seems to do alright for moulting up to subadult for this species. WIll see if this net capable of producing successful adult molt.

 

[tier]

Hi

Well, I think 3-5 month is correct. The 4 males which reached adulthood over here lived for about 3 month.

They molted adult 2 month earlier than the females and were already adult for about 3-3,5 month when the ladies started the calling-behaviour.

They very very activly searching for females to pair with with an age of 4-6 weeks (males tryed to mate with other males or subadult larvae!!!), but tryed to mate with an age of 8 weeks either.

My big luck was that I had the chace to buy 1 other, younger male. In effect I had the chance to mate him with two females. He tryed it a lot: 5 hours on the back of one female, trying to mate. Than he climbed down the female and run straight towards the next female, climbing her back and trying to mate the next 5 hours. But he was a stupid one and just didn't do it correct!!! :-(

The lights in my enclosures used to switch on at 8.00AM and the males started searching for females at 05.00PM every day. But maybe this was going hand in hand with the raising temperature?!?!

I think you are doing great with them and you have a big chance to breed another generation, I hope so

 

[yen_saw]

wow 2 months earlier!! now i understand your concern. Hopefully the female here will mature sooner for me. Thanks for the encouraging word tier!

 

[Juergen]

Hello Yen,

for the last molt it would be better to reduce the number of Idolos per cage.

Best regards,

Juergen

 

[Juergen]

I will try to upload some of my photos...

 

[Juergen]

It works!!!

A female some time after her last molt...

After some more days they become their green color, 3 - 5 weeks later (depending on the quantity of food) they start "calling" if no male did his work before...

 

[macro junkie]

It works!!! A female some time after her last molt...

After some more days they become their green color, 3 - 5 weeks later (depending on the quantity of food) they start "calling" if no male did his work before...

thet pic is so small i cant see it