Katnapper's Picture of Today

[AmandaLynn]

Great photos! I really like the first pic of the molting T. sinensis, it looks so pretty and graceful.

 

[Katnapper]

Butterfly at my brother's farm. (September 2009)

PS... More butterfly pics newly added in blog.

 

[Katnapper]

The golf cart I use to go back about a mile behind my brother's farm house where there is good mantis hunting ground! (August 2009)

Edit: PS... More pics of my brother's place in new blog entry.

 

[Katnapper]

Some more for today...

Brunneria borealis adult female (July 2009)

Close-up of face

Look at the cute little tiny wings!

 

[bassist]

Gorgeous.

 

[Katnapper]

Gorgeous.

Thanks, Tommy!

 

[PhilinYuma]

What does the male look like?

 

[Katnapper]

Some different colors of Phyllocrania paradoxa...

Phyllocrania paradoxa adult female (April 2009)

Phyllocrania paradoxa males (April 2009)

Look... we're not mantids, we're leaves!!!

Look at my handsome headgear!

Phyllocrania paradoxa sub-adult female (April 2009)

I'm a green girlie!

 

[Katnapper]

What does the male look like?

Nobody knows, Phil, as none have ever been recorded or seen. They are all female and reproduce by parthenogenesis (basically cloning themselves). But I'm sure you knew all that.

 

[revmdn]

Love those ghost photos.

 

[Katnapper]

Love those ghost photos.

Thanks, Martin!

 

[yen_saw]

Kat, your photo is getting better and better everyday too Do you use tripod for your close-up shot?

 

[Katnapper]

Kat, your photo is getting better and better everyday too Do you use tripod for your close-up shot?

Yen, my tripod sits folded up in the corner of the bug room. I find it too unweildy to use for the most part. Plus, my bug room is so crowded and messy most times, with cages and miscellaneous all over the floor (in addition to on the shelves) that I don't even have room to use it in there. When I tried using it a while back, it seemed that the mantids would move and it was hard to take pics using the tripod.

I've jumped into keeping [what I thought was Idolomantis diabolica ] but is really Gongylus gongylodes... here is a shot for today. (more in my blog)

 

[bassist]

That's a Gongylus nymph kat lol.

 

[Katnapper]

That's a Gongylus nymph kat lol.

Ya, ya.... so everyone is now telling me, lol! When I bought the ooths they were supposed to be Idolo ooths. I even specifically wrote back upon receiving them and questioned the species, as I'd never seen pics of Idolo ooths like that. But I think it was an innocent mistake in shipping. And as for me... an innocent mistake, as I've never had or kept either, lol. Now I know.... lol..... B) :lol:

 

[Katnapper]

Here are two (unfortunately) deceased adult male Rhombodera sp. - (July 2009)

 

[Rick]

What does the male look like?

There are none. Sarcasm?

Where did you get the tan brunners? Only ever saw that once before.

 

[Katnapper]

Where did you get the tan brunners? Only ever saw that once before.

Hatched and raised from the ooth I bought from you. :lol:

 

[Rick]

Hatched and raised from the ooth I bought from you. :lol:

Cool. The tan seems uncommon in the wild.

 

[Katnapper]

I have a fake tree in the bug room that I call the "flower tree," because I also have bunches of artificial flowers stuck into it here and there and around in the base. I had a mis-molted adult female Tenodera sinensis living in it for a while whom I would hand feed. She eventually laid two fertile ooths in the tree, and both ended up hatching out loose in the bug room. Here are pics of one of them that I caught hatching.

Close-up of previous pic...