Idolomantis diabolica L7 molt (video)

[Precarious]

Female Idolomantis diabolica molts perfectly to sub-adult.

Wait till you see how amazing this thing looks halfway through the video once she pulls out of the old skin. Hard to believe this is a real insect.

Skip ahead to 3:30 if you get impatient.

As you'll see she twists to grasp the leaves to her side in case the skin drops. Once she's dried enough she reaches past the old skin to the twigs above.

Soundtrack by Precarious

UPDATE: L7 is only pre-sub for female Idolos. Mantid is now L8 and only subadult.

 

[warpdrive]

great video.

now I hate you so much. I just got 2x 12x12x12 and 1x 12x12x18 exoteras because of you. hey, it's my birthday soon so what the heck.

may as well add me to your list if you get lucky with them. I'll take the bus to boro park and get you some home made knishies and fresh bagels. come on, you know that's a fair trade. :lol:

Harry

 

[Precarious]

great video.

now I hate you so much. I just got 2x 12x12x12 and 1x 12x12x18 exoteras because of you. hey, it's my birthday soon so what the heck.

may as well add me to your list if you get lucky with them. I'll take the bus to boro park and get you some home made knishies and fresh bagels. come on, you know that's a fair trade. :lol:

Harry

YUM!

Haha! That's exactly how many I have. Don't be a hater! You're going to LOVE the Exo-Terras!

Not much chance I'm going to get lucky with the Idolos because it looks like all 5 are female! L5, two L6s and two L7s.

ANYONE HAVE A MALE AVAILABLE??? Any age will do! :helpsmilie:

 

[warpdrive]

PM Brian. if he has any left, he's great to deal with and lives in NJ.

Harry

 

[Precarious]

PM Brian. if he has any left, he's great to deal with and lives in NJ.

Harry

That's already in the works. But it's only one. I'd like to improve my chances.

 

[sporeworld]

Fantastic video! Great job!

 

[Precarious]

Fantastic video! Great job!

Thanks. Sorry it took longer than I thought to edit and post.

Hope yours Idolos are doing well.

If you know anyone with a spare male hit me up!

 

[sporeworld]

Just my lame lady, and ooths. Although Frey (Poland) mentioned having some recently - but no guarantees on live delivery (and it's a blizzard in Poland right now).

 

[The Gex Files]

Great video!

 

[animalexplorer]

Really cool video. Diabolica is the coolest! Watching them go through the molting process is so fascinating. It has been an average of 18-21 between molts for mine except the last one which I found out is a male, it took him 31 days to molt.

 

[guapoalto049]

Don't sell yourself short Precarious, if I'm not mistaken L7 is sub-sub adult for the ladies. She's got two more nail-biting molts to go! Lol I thought the same thing...

 

[Precarious]

Don't sell yourself short Precarious, if I'm not mistaken L7 is sub-sub adult for the ladies. She's got two more nail-biting molts to go! Lol I thought the same thing...

Good God! Are you sure? Those wing buds are pretty large. I never heard of a mantid going to L9. :blink:

 

[myles]

suberb stuff as always , excellent video

 

[Ricardo]

will she get the green coating with time?

 

[Precarious]

will she get the green coating with time?

Mine are all rust colored. There must be regional subspecies or something.

 

[sporeworld]

They "go green" a few days after the last molt.

And, as far as I know, or can tell, there's only 8 molts.

 

[guapoalto049]

They are the same as shields: L7 is subadult for males and L8 is subadult for females. From doing a little research (and some application of my own) Dyar's Rule states that mantids will grow about 1.4x each molt. If this is the case, then my L7 "subadult" female Idolos would only be 8.3 cm as an adult. If you multiply that by 1.4 then you get ~11.75 cm, which is around the adult size of the Idolos I've seen.

Its a pretty neat little tool, it worked with a considerable amount of accuracy for my Chinese, shields, and violins growing up.

I noticed that my male shields at L7 were actually a little bigger than my L7 females, but since the females ended up having an extra molt, they ended up larger.

 

[guapoalto049]

Good God! Are you sure? Those wing buds are pretty large. I never heard of a mantid going to L9. :blink:

And PS since they're the KING of mantids, they can molt as many times as they want! Same thing goes for MEGAMANTIS/MECHA-MEGAMANTIS. I feel a showdown coming on...

 

[Precarious]

And PS since they're the KING of mantids, they can molt as many times as they want! Same thing goes for MEGAMANTIS/MECHA-MEGAMANTIS. I feel a showdown coming on...

Hey, they can molt as many times as they want as long as they keep growing! I could use an Idolo steed to ride across the wasteland once the economy collapses.

I guess I'll find out soon enough.