Miomantis caffra

[baskmantids]

I was wondering if any one has any of these? I haven't seen any for sale in a while on here or on the Facebook groups also haven't seen any pictures of questions on care. Is there just no interest in them?

i personally love the species I got a subadult pair from a member of the forum (ill put his name in later) in a trade. I later went on to mate them successfully. The female had to be eating while breeding or shell take notice of the male. After my oothecas hatched I had a shortage of flies so they began eating each other. I now have one female adult from the first ootheca I'd love to buy a male. And a presub pair from the last two.

the males is very jumpy and sometimes is scared of their food. While the female will take down prey till they meet there fill. I love to feed adult females before they lay. they take so much food it makes you wonder where it is all going

Would like to here about others experiences with this species. If anyone keeps them now. And if you have and links or threads on them you can share

 

[CosbyArt]

I've hatched two Miomantis paykullii ooths, and really enjoyed them. Which is from the same genus, Miomantis of course. One ooth hatched 97 nymphs, and the other was a bit more.

Sadly though the species seem to pass in and out of the hobby, mainly due their tiny size as many keepers prefer the larger or more exotic mantid species. Can't comment on their breeding as in the end after selling/trading/giving away some nymphs, and a few problems with flat/bent abdomens of my remaining ones, I was left with only a few females.

I found them a interesting and inquisitive species, but tried unsuccessfully to find them males for breeding. I know they tend to show up for sale typically a couple of times a year. 

Mine loved to sway back and forth fully, while they were sitting on my hand. They were easy to hand tame, and would attack prey much larger than themselves. The newly hatched nymphs would easily eat Melanogaster flies, even though they were about the same size. Although they would eat crickets, and everything else, they seemed to really enjoy their bottle flies I caught in wild traps. I always found it funny as the flies were larger in girth than the adult mantids, and often the fly once caught by a mantid would buzz it's wings so fast and hard, the mantids looked like they were getting free air flight.

You can view the ooth hatching here and some images of my females. I hope to get some more of them sometime.

Regarding links typically the paykullii and caffra are grouped together in the group of Egyptian Pygmy mantids...

• Here is a caresheet from Orin.
  
• A interesting list of Miomantis species.
  
• The Keeping Insects guide on them.
  
• Another from USA Mantis.
  
• Info from Dethcheez, although at another forum.
  
• Caresheet from Mantis USA.
  
• Lastly a caresheet from the UK mantis forum.