Mantids I found during the Station Fire

[cloud jaguar]

Having to evacuate from the fire recently really sucked. However, something good did come of it since i found 2 awesome mantids. Since adopting the mantid hobby i have developed nympho-vision. Often I scan the underside of roses and other flowers looking for mantids. I have pretty good luck this way and have found super small nymphs and adults too.

Ashley. This first one is a subadult s. limbata that ran into my home during the Station fire. On friday night, some friends and I looked out the back door at the rapidly advancing fire. Due to the smoke the door was not open more than 5 minutes. During this period a beautiful peach/pink camo s. limbata must have run on the ceiling into our kitchen because I found it shortly after entering from outside. It had a large ash from the fire stuck on its foot so my wife named her Ashley. We had to evacuate the next morning and took Ashley and the others with us. She probably came from a mandeville vine near our back door with large pink flowers.

Today at the trader joes parking lot in la canada i was scanning some dried yellow roses and found a beautiful subadult yellow female s. limbata. She is very pretty and the first non-green mantid I have found in nature.

My wife took these of a ghost nymph. Pretty one.

 

[Ntsees]

In the mists of danger when houses are burning around your area, you're eyes are still looking for mantids? Lol, I'm just like you.

 

[superfreak]

hehe... nympho-vision.... i think i was afflicted with that in my teens

 

[hibiscusmile]

aww, what poor little babies, they was lookin for you!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Good lord, Arkanis! I had never noticed before today that you use the VITRIOL acronym as your signature. No wonder that you safely escaped the fire!

 

[Opivy]

beautiful pictures! Wish I could acquire your type of nympho-vision, I would love to be able to find mantids - Until then I'm stuck with mine... /sigh back to reading vladimir nabokov...

 

[Katnapper]

You're lucky in more ways than one, Roland. Beautiful mantids...

 

[kamakiri]

Nice find! Thanks for sharing your pics! I have a few pinkies that I've hatched, and a couple that are yellowish for now...but to find them like you did was really cool

 

[charleyandbecky]

Beautiful!

 

[vera_renczi]

wow! I've found one nymph this summer and he had a fungus. I only found him because he was just chillin' beside me on my front porch. I don't have your nympho-vision!

 

[cat_named_noodles]

Such pretty S. limbata ladies! And the Ghost is adorable in a freaky way lol. I hope you are all doing ok?

 

[MantidLord]

Well thank God you were able to escape the fire, and congratulations on catching the mantids (added bonus). You saved those little guys, and hopefully your house will be intact as well.

Kamakiri, my friend's mystery mantis (from the "crinkled limbata wings" thread) looked just like Arkansis's Limbata at sub-adult with the striped arms. Is that a characteristic of Limbata? I'm sorry for changing the subject on this thread Arkansis but I couldn't pass up the opportunity (especially considering that I can't get a pic of the mystery mantis).