Litaneutria minor- Obscure Ground Mantis (pics)

[Joe]

hey everyone!

i just got back from a 2 1/2 week vacation and with me came lots of mantids including ground mantids and eauropean mantids. i found 11 ground mantids but 6 died on the way home since they were really small(prob L2 or L3) and we couldnt find a pet shop with the smaller species of fruit flies. i've always been hearing that they are very difficult to keep since their hatchlings are literally specs. anyways i have 5 left (4 females and one male) the male and one female are adults and are a little over 1 1/2 inches, extremly fast too, they are the fastest mantis i've ever seen and may even be faster than all mantis hatchlings. the rest of the ground mantids look like they are a molt before sub-adult and they are about an inch long. i'll see if i can breed these species and pass it one with all of you hopefully if the male doesnt die on me. here are some pics of them below.

L6 females

Adult Female

Adult Male

Adult Male and Female

Joe

 

[Ian]

Awesome Joe! Nice find. What stage are those at in the photo?

 

[yen_saw]

Joe, they look similar to what i caught last year

THey are really small even as adult (looks like you have at least an adult pair, female has short wing) but are capable of taking down house flies.

 

[Joe]

the top photo has the three L6 females(as i know so far, they are almost too fast to sex lol) and the rest are the pics of the adult female and adult male. and yea they look exactly as the one yen has i read there are 4 species of ground mantis and i'm pretty sure mine's the Litaneutria minor. i also heard the Litaneutria obscura live down south but i'm not fully sure. yens looks exactly like my adult male. i'll give you a tip on finding them too. what i did was walk with out moving my head up and down like most people walk, then i wave my foot back and forth befre i take a step and with your head not moving around you can watch for the slightest movement on the ground. your feet are used to scare them into running which is pretty easy to catch since they really blow there cover by moving soo fast.

Joe

 

[Rick]

Those are pretty cool.

 

[Joe]

I've just succesfully mated the adult pair yesterday!!! heres a pic of them below. hopefully the female will produce lots of ooths. so far i know they are a communal species, as i am keeping all three L6 females together. It also appears that it doesnt matter how bulky they prey is, it just has to be just as long or shorter than 1/2 their length

Joe

 

[julian camilo]

congratulations!

 

[Ian]

Nice work joe!

 

[yen_saw]

The mated female laid an ooth few days ago. This is the first time i've seen the ooth from this species. Wanna share the ooth pic, it is a small ooth (~1 cm). I doubt if there are more than 20 eggs in there. I have twig and stick in the glass jar but she preferred to lay the ooth on towel paper :?

 

[Rick]

Thats awesome yen. Are you guys going to be selling these mantids?

 

[xenuwantsyou]

Lol, I remeber a few years ago my family was out in Utah I think. It had just rained quite a bit and we stopped to admire the scenery. All of a sudden I looked down and OMG!!! I just happened to look in the right place at the right time and spotted one of those little guys. I have a strange habit of doing that.

 

[yen_saw]

I have never raised the hatchling before. I believed the hatchling are very small so it is going to be tough but i love the challenge. Would rahter trade this species if i managed to keep the hatchling into bigger size.

 

[Joe]

congrats yen!! good luck on hatching and raising them!!

Joe

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks Joe, i will post a pic on the hatchling if this one hatched. Just hoping that this one is fertiled. Am keeping tracking for the number of ooth she is going to lay and other details too.