My mantid collection

[Malakyoma]

Polyspilota aeruginosa update: I'm sticking to my belief that my male is a sexual idiot. He was on her back for 60 hours and then I found them separated. never saw connection but it could have happened. I have photos here proving his idiocy. The female eats like a beast when she's hungry, taking 4 small crickets and 5 mealworm beetles in one day. I'll try mating them again tomorrow and keep everyone updated.

Present count: one adult male, one adult female. 2 total.

Female omnomnoming a newly eclosed mealworm beetle. Male's head is out of focus in the back.



You can see the male has pinched her wing with his... whatever its called. This is about as close to success as I witnessed.



Close up of his idiocy

 

[Mime454]

The first time is always hard. He get more experienced. Just give him time.

 

[Malakyoma]

Polyspilota griffinii update: One of the species I got early on in my mantis career, its hard to believe how fast these guys are growing. Clint actually molted to L6 today, and it wasn't long ago I got them at L2. They dont eat as much as my majusculas do, and their raptorials are smaller so they dont take as big prey. They're all in 32 oz cups right now, but I'll move them into bigger around presub or subadult. They supposedly get really big, up to 5 inches. They love hanging on the wall, so I give them lots of vertical climbing space, and let the cup top be the horizontal perch.

Present count: 1 L6, 6 L5. 7 Total

Griffin looking cute. I dont know how they make this face but it melts my heart every time



Griffin backside. I like the colours.



Griffin eating mealworm. omnomnom



Griffin eating mealworm from another angle



Clint, freshly molted to L6. I was able to count the segments and saw she's a girl... so Clint might not be the best fitting name.

 

[Malakyoma]

Archimantis latistyla update: Almost all of these guys are L2. I think there's only 1 that hasn't molted yet. They're almost all separated after today, only one or wo pairs left and that should be fixed by the end of the night. I have to say close ups of these guys are probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. After some helpful tips from Precarious, I've added a lot more vertical climbing space to their enclosures. The walls are basically lined with sticks and such. I don't see them drink very often, but since they're L2 I still mist twice a day. They're eating hydei like at L1, just more of them. I give them 2 each mon/wed/fri.

Present count: 9 L2, 2 L1. 11 total.

Archimantis on lid of cup. Backside in view



Archimantis on my hand. Another good view of the backside



Archimantis looking to the left



Cutest face I've ever seen



Silly Archimantis, you aren't a dead leaf mantis stop trying to hide on dead leaves



Archimantis scouting to the left. looks like he's dancing



Archimantis being cute again

 

[Malakyoma]

December 26th update: These photos were taken pre-christmas so I'll be doing another update tomorrow maybe.

Included: Mesopteryx cuteness, Archimantis cuteness, purple boxer cuteness.

Mesopteryx alata: I gave these guys a special treat a few days before christmas. Instead of the typical hydei, I cut up mealworms and gave them chunks. They got quite defensive over them as seen below:

Their threat display looks like raptors from jurassic park :wub:

Archimantis latistyla: Almost all of these guys are at L3 now. Their colours are changing but they haven't lost the ability to make cute faces.

Ephestiasula pictipes: These little guys are hitting L3 as well. 4 of 5 have molted already. I can actually see how they look with the naked eye instead of needing a magnifying lens lol

 

[Reptiliatus]

Nice stuff!

 

[Malakyoma]

December 27th update: Some nice pictures today.

Included: Polyspilota aeruginosa adult female (Xena), Mesopteryx alata L5/6 (Benedict), Hierodula majuscula L6 male (Majere), 2 L5 Hierodula membranacea (Digger and Melancholy), L6 Popa spurca (Bonsly), and L7 Polyspilota griffinii (Clint).

Majere is losing his beautiful reds and oranges guys. He's fading into the standard greens of a majuscula. Here he is in his most recent molt:

Polyspilota griffinii: They're starting to turn L7. So far Clint and Eagle are both there. I tried sexing them today, and I either have terrible luck or am bad at sexing, because all 7 look female to me.

Mesopteryx alata: Finally caught a decent picture of a mesopteryx sitting still and normally, not running around or looking everywhere. Benedict is enjoying a mealworm here

Hierodula membranacea: Here's some shots of Digger and Melancholy enjoying their christmas treat of honey covered mealworm chunks. Hand fed. These guys are L5 now, most of their brothers and sisters are joining them by now too.

Popa spurca crassa: In the "easy feeders to culture" thread I was talking about how I tried feeding pupa to mantids and they seemed to enjoy it. Here's Bonsly with hers.

Polyspilota aeruginosa: In these pictures Xena is in the Exoterra screen terrarium I go for christmas. I tried mating them again and he still wasn't interested, so I gave her a mealie pupa to distract her while I moved Hercules.

 

[Malakyoma]

two pics for you guys today. Thirsty griffin and hungry majuscula.

This is the same griffin from the "White eye blind" thread I started in the health forum.

This is Hiro eating a waxworm. My mantids really seem to love waxworms.

 

[agent A]

your pics are awful! JK and the white eye griffin is a girl!

nice majuscula

 

[Malakyoma]

The white eye griffin has the burst of segments at the end of the abdomen that tells me male.

 

[agent A]

and the ovipositor says female

 

[Malakyoma]

First update of 2013 (2 Parts)

Included: Polyspilota griffinii, Ephestiasula pictipes, Archimantis latistyla, Hierodula majuscula, Hierodula membranacea, Mesopteryx alata, Odontomantis sp. Taumantis sp(?)

Polyspilota griffinii: Nearly all of the griffins are L7 now. That makes the males subadult and the females presub. Heres a shot of the most recent one molting, the fogginess is because it was shot through the plastic of the container.

Ephestiasula pictipes: The Purple boxers are all L4 now. Gets easier and easier to discern actual mantid features in them, but they're in no danger of outgrowing the 3 oz cups they're in.

Archimantis latistyla: All of the Australian sticks are L4 now as well. They have some crazy colours on them, and still have the ability to make cute faces.

Hierodula majuscula: Majesty was the first one to molt to L7. Hiro followed suit today. I gave majesty a waxworm today to keep his strength up.

 

[Malakyoma]

Hierodula membranacea: The oldest of these guys are either L5 or L6. pretty sure L5. They're eating food as big as they are!

Mesopteryx alata: Still holding strong as my favorite species. I love the long, grasslike body and how fast they are. Combined with how inquisitive they are, they're always checking things out, they can end up anywhere if you have a lapse of attention for 5 seconds.

Odontomantis sp: I haven't lost any more of these little ant mimics. They're holding at 11 of them, and they've almost all molted to L2 now so I'm pretty comfortable there wont be any more die-off.

Taumantis (Sigianna? maybe?): quite the range on these guys. Some are still at L2, refusing to molt, while some are hitting L4 and looking like they need a bigger cup. I think this one is L3.

 

[Malakyoma]

January 10th: First P. Griffinii has molted to adulthood. Titan is an adult female who's wings are still drying out as we speak lol.

You can sorta see my hand on the other side of the wall in this one. For size.

 

[Malakyoma]

January 15th update. If anyone even checks my updates.

Included: Ephestiasula pictipes, Archimantis latistyla (Green?), Polyspilota griffinii (Griff newly adult and a jealous Titan), Taumantis, and Hierodula membranacea (Cute faces and Ruby eyes).

Ephestiasula pictipes: Gave Balrog a baby mealworm to mix things up a bit from fruit flies.

Archimantis latistyla: This one is the only one I've seen with such predominant and such bright green colours. usually they're brown/black with green highlights for me.

Polyspilota griffinii: Griff is the most recent to adult. she's got more green to her than Titan. Titan also got jealous of the photoshoot and attention I was giving Griff and decided to threaten me when I tried to feed her.

Taumantis: Cute faces

Hierodula membranacea: This one has pretty red eyes. maybe from getting less light than others?

 

[sally]

Wow! Great collection. They all seem to have their own personalities. Nice job raising them all.

 

[Malakyoma]

January 29th: Small update.

Included: Pnigomantis medioconstricta, Odontomantis sp., Taumantis sp.

I decided to finally post pictures of my Double shields and ant mantids. They're already L5 and you guys havent seen them yet. The Taumantis is different, some very odd lack of colours to this one.

This is a Tau believe it or not. Don't know where all its colour is. His brothers and sisters are all bright green.

 

[MantidBro]

Awesome, you got a good collection going on!

 

[Malakyoma]

February 6th update

Included: Polyspilota griffinii being cute, threat, and running. Popa spurca being cute. Mesopteryx alata munching away. And Taumantis hiding from me.

Polyspilota griffinii: Subject is Griff. She sometimes threatens the superworms I feed her. Griffins will run very often when threatened, and they keep their wings flared when they do. makes fore some interesting photos.

Popa spurca: Subject is Shifty (I believe male). doesn't move very much, but I upgraded his enclosure recently and snapped some photos of him giving me the cute face.

Mesopteryx alata: Subject is Tattle. House flies are late to arrive. Mantids were getting hungry so I bought 30 small crix, gut loaded them and fed them all off after 24 hours.

Taumantis sp.: Subject is Mime. I took her out today and she took a very quick liking to the fake plant I put her on. I don't handle my tau's often enough so she was nervous and hid from me under the leaf. Such a cutie.

 

[agent A]

why is there a pic of a popa in the mesopterix update line? also, your L5 pnigo is female

i have 2 L5 male pnigos...