ID assistance

[PowerHobo]

My little gentleman here just molted (mismolted, unfortunately) and his wing buds are clearly visible now, so I figured it might be possible to get a decent ID.

He was wild caught in Las Vegas, NV. I tried bugguide.net, but I’m not familiar enough with that site to use it effectively, apparently.

He’s very skittish, so getting good pictures of him is a chore to say the least.

 

[Mantis Lady]

I don't know wat species he is, but he is cute. I hope wit next molt his feet will be healed. There are some people here that can advise to help him with his next molt.

 

[Synapze]

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[MantisGirl13]

He looks different than the mantis religiosa, but then, what do I know?

- MantisGirl13

 

[River Dane]

The pictures are a little blurry, but my best guess would be Iris oratoria, or Mediterranean mantis. In case I’m wrong, you could also try looking for the distinct European mantis eyespots on the coxa. Also, Chinese mantises tend to have subtle stripes running vertically down their faces. It could also be a Stagmomantis sp. but I have yet to figure out any distinguishing marks on those guys.

 

[PowerHobo]

I don't know wat species he is, but he is cute. I hope wit next molt his feet will be healed. There are some people here that can advise to help him with his next molt.

Unfortunately, he wasn't content with just chewing that leg off where it bent during his molt, and has now chewed off the entire leg, so I don't think there's any coming back for that one. His other rear walking leg looks whole to me, but seems to have some trouble gripping, so I'm definitely concerned about his next molt.

The pictures are a little blurry, but my best guess would be Iris oratoria, or Mediterranean mantis.

I think you might just have it! All of the pictures of that species I found have similar coloring and shape and white/pale edges on the shield. Didn't see any with the central stripe running down the back, though. I'm not sure if that white edging is common in other species as well; The european mantis seems to have it but definitely not so prominently, same with the Stagmomantis spp I saw on bugguide. Not sure if he'll lose that in his last couple molts (assuming he only has a couple left based on the wing buds).

He definitely doesn't have the eyespots on his coxa, or the lines on his face.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

It is possible for an entire missing leg to at least partially regenerate at the next molt. He may start with a little stump that gets bigger with each molt but since he is subadult & only has one or two molts to go before adulthood he probably won't grow back the entire leg if at all. He should be able to function as an adult without the leg.

His tarsa on his other leg may be damaged and that is why he has trouble gripping.  You will need to carefully watch him to make sure he doesn't fall on his next molt. You can tell he is about to molt when his wing buds get puffy. When he is only hours or minutes away he will assume the molting posture where he hangs with his thorax perpendicular to the ground. (There are pics of this posture in one of the threads here but I am unable to find it at the moment.) You may also want to cover the ceiling of his enclosure with something that is easy to grip like tulle mesh. @Synapze had a mantis with damaged tarsa that couldn't grip but he was able to get the mantis to molt safely using tulle, maybe he can explain what he did better than I did? If your mantis is able to molt successfully his new tarsa should function normally.

I've been saying "he" based on the number of segments I counted on top of the abdomen but to know sex for sure the segments should be counted from the underside of the abdomen. It depends on the species but females usually have 6 segments while males will have 7 or 8.

 

[Ocelotbren]

@Predatorhousepet The post with the pictures of the molting posture is here:



I only found it because I remembered who had posted it.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Thanks for finding it for me!

 

[yen_saw]

Could be Iris oratoria.

 

[Ocelotbren]

Glad to help, it was definitely an informative post!

 

[Synapze]

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[Nicolas]

Iris Oratoria 100000%. I live in Vegas too and have seen them over and over. 

 

[PowerHobo]

Unfortunately, the little dude (Hilberto) died sometime last night. I found him laying legs up on the substrate, bundled like they sometimes do when you disturb their containers. The remaining stump of the leg he had chewed off (I didn't realize there was a stump left at all until now) was completely black, and there was a bit of black coloration spreading out from where it joined the body. Not sure if this was exactly the cause of death, but I'm sure it didn't help.

He ate a very small pinhead cricket the day before yesterday (quarantined for several days and fed fresh fruits/carrots), and was still quite lively last night when I tried to feed him another, though he refused it.

My first mantis death, so I'm a little bummed, but I'll definitely be giving Iris oratoria a shot again in the future.

 

[john57]

My understanding that carrots is not mantis favorite  vegetable and it seems that he was getting a bit sick when he refused the food the last night.

 

[PowerHobo]

My understanding that carrots is not mantis favorite  vegetable...

That's definitely good information to have. I was not aware of that. Thanks!

 

[River Dane]

Sorry for your loss. The leg might’ve gotten infected, or he might’ve just died from the shock of eating his own leg. Hopefully you’ll find another oratoria again, soon! I’ve never kept this species, but they look pretty cool to me.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Losing a mantis to an illness is rough. I'm sorry.

I had a boxer mantis die a while back after chewing off his own foot. What seems like a relatively small injury to us can be devastating for them...the probability for infection is high. I have heard of people putting honey on injuries like that for its antibacterial properties but how effective that is who knows. I've never tried it but I'm thinking something like a tiny amount of bacitracin or neosporin would probably be more effective in that situation. 

My understanding that carrots is not mantis favorite  vegetable

I think that's mainly a rumor spread on the facebook mantis groups. One rumor is that they think crickets fed carrots are more likely to carry the "black death" because of the beta carotene in the carrot. The black death is a name for the condition when a mantis will have foul smelling sticky black vomit/diarrhea then die. I don't think the carrot thing is true. It's usually petstore crickets that are kept in dirty subpar conditions that get sick with it but homekept crickets can get the disease too if their enclosure is neglected and gets too nasty. A lot of keepers will forgo crickets altogether to avoid the risk of the black death.

I've also heard the rumor that the beta carotene in the carrots makes the crickets taste bad. I also think this one is not true, I've seen plenty of keepers add carrots as part of their crickets diet with no issues.

 

[Mantis Lady]

Sorry for your los @PowerHobo