My first Mantis!

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When i saw the first picture of the enclosure thought that it may be able to get out of the top... i should have mentioned it...

get some nylon and glue it to the top and that will never happen again... along with feeders escaping as well

 
Thanks for the good advice, everyone! I put a paper towel between the lid and the tub last night, so he won't be escaping like that again any time soon. I'll fabricate a more permanent solution when I get some free time at my shop.

 
Any advice on how to help this little dude grow faster? I feed him daily. He'll usually eat a few aphids a day before he loses interest in them. I've been doing my best to keep the humidity and temperature up in his habitat as well. Does anyone know where I can get mantis steroids? (Just kidding :lol: )

 
he should be eating hydei flies, the above member sells them on her site and she sends tons of them on a producing culture, lol.

 
D_Hemptress said:
it looks like a little stagmo to me as well. but you cant sex them until later in life. the last time i tried to guess that i had a boy it ended up being a girl

p.s. its amazing to me that you saw that little dude. before keeping mantids i had never seen any that size
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WolfPuppy said:
Yep, looks like it's probably a stagmomantis limbata. I have a few L1's of that species too. It's impossible to tell if they are male or female until about L3 or L4, but congratulations! :)
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I find it interesting that you are saying that it looks like a Stagmomantis because it looks just like my Iris Oratoria nymphs as well. . .

 
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So I just noticed today that Geoffrey has molted!! I came home from work and saw his old exoskeleton sitting at the bottom of his habitat =) he seems to be better at climbing already!

 
So it's been 23 days since Geoffrey molted from L1 to L2. I've been feeding him as generously as possible. At least every other day I'll find him a decent fruit fly or small moth that seem to be a pretty big meal for the little guy. I'm just anxious for him to molt again but it seems like 23 days makes the L2-L3 molt a little past due. Also, after feeding, his abdomen has been swelling so I can see the segments on the underside more clearly now. I think I count only six... Geoffrey may be a girl!?

 
curled up abdomen, may be a large species. congrats, i hope geoffrey makes it to adulthood!

 
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I also came across a stagmomantis nymph at work, it crawled across my monitor screen. I thought it was a big ant at first. Looked trippy backlit by a colorful hi def screen, so of course it took it home, I don't come across nymphs in the "wild".

 
28 days since Geoffreys first molt... Today I tried feeding him and he played around with his prey for a bit but did not fully grab it or eat anything. He looks plump after his few large meals from a couple days ago, and he's just been hanging out at the top of his habitat. I made sure his habitat is nice and humid for him and put him back in by himself. I'm really hoping that he will molt today or tomorrow.

 
If he's just flicking the prey around, he may be ready to molt. My subadult female Hierodula M. Is doing that, and I see the wing-buds are very "hard" looking and she is ready to molt.

Good luck with Geoffrey!

 

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