Midget Mantis

[Serle]

Counting containers for population I found a small Tenodera in where I thought only 3 mantids lived.  This is quite unusual as they were separated at L3 ,now L5 the others are 4 times his size . At first I thought a Miomantis , Egyptian Pygmy , had gotten in with them ....Almost looks as if he has missed a couple moults.............  S

 

[CosbyArt]

@Serle I've had it happen in community setups myself. I'd assume it is missed molts from the nymph not getting enough to eat and not bothering to molt, likely from the others taking most of the prey. In time mine did the "extra" molts and caught up in size once separated, of course the smaller ones didn't reach adulthood as soon as the others though.