My Hierodula majuscula L4 Male & Female

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maybon

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There are 2 photos of each. And both of them are very full as they ate a pretty decent sized cockroach as soon as I got them out of the shipping container.

So I'll start with the male

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And here's the female

IMG_0807.jpg


IMG_0789.jpg


Sorry about the bad photos, I need to work out how the get them to stay still (they keep dancing as if mimicking a branch in the wind).

Is it possible to over feed them or will they just stop eating when full?

P.S thanks to Yen for helping me get in contact with a great breeder in Australia & making it possible for me to start this new hobby up!

 
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Nice pics.

I have several H. Majuscula. They do seem to eat a lot. I just watch the abdomen. When it looks like it is going to burst I don't feed them even though they will eat anyway. I never seen them throw food away when they are full, but I have seen them hold on to food in their claw and eat it later. So I guess they do stop when they had their fill.

 
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.....P.S thanks to Yen for helping me get in contact with a great breeder in Australia & making it possible for me to start this new hobby up!
Good to know! All the best with your new mantis.
They look older than L4, they appear to be subadult
They do look older than that but definitely not subadult.
 
I am 99% sure that one is a female, I have not counted the segments but the end segment of the female is definitely longer & the males is much skinnier (this is a valid way to check right?)

I will get some more photos of this today if I can

 
I am 99% sure that one is a female, I have not counted the segments but the end segment of the female is definitely longer & the males is much skinnier (this is a valid way to check right?)

I will get some more photos of this today if I can
i think you have a pair too. I would be surprise if the sender made mistake.
 
Pics weren't that great for sexing anyways, so I'm sure you do have a pair. They're pretty nice though. I need to get some green mantids.
Yeah green ones are my favourites, because I fell in love with them as a kid. Not to say the others aren't cool though, I want to have all of them haha.

 
Yeah green ones are my favourites, because I fell in love with them as a kid. Not to say the others aren't cool though, I want to have all of them haha.
I wish that green species could be found around here, any other mantids except grizzeled mantids and grass-like mantids are extremely rare. I've only ever found one green female which I could not ID. I ended up feeding that to one of my lizards, which I'm still kicking myself over since I'm pretty sure she was preggers. That was a good 3 years ago though, I wasn't really interested in them at the time. Grass like mantids and grizzleds are relatively common, but with their superb camoflauge and small size, they're pretty darn hard to find. The only evidence of their pressence is the occasional hatched oothecae found on old bark and twigs. Luckily a week ago I found a bunch of L1 grizzled mantids that had recently hatched, as well as an l4 nymph. Any natives around you?

 
Yeah I have a few native mantids near me, I live in outer suburban Melbourne (probably 10-15minutes to bush/farmland) and on top of that there are a absolute buttload of national parks etc near me.

I only know the name of two of them though... There is almost no one in all of Australia who keeps them as pets, you can't get them at gardening stores etc... either for pest control.

Near me I have Orthodera ministralia and Pseudomantis albofimbriata. I have also seen a brown one around which I have been unable to identify as it escaped me.

I have a Pseudomantis egg case as well which is exciting. It's the first one I've tried to hatch, so in a month or two I should have some babies.

This website has great information on Australian mantids:

http://www.brisbanei...tids/index.html

 
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