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Thanks for the reply all, please do not hesitate to voice your opinion. I am all ear.

Here is my "draft" list

Orchid, NIgerian flower, spiny flower - out of the three, spiny flower is selected (Sad that orchid and Nigeria flower have to go :cry: ). Orchid mantis is no longer a "rare" collection now and i am sure breeders around the world (especially the US which i am more concern) have cracked the secret "breeding code". Nigerian is new here but there are not a difficult species to breed as far as i know. However, spiny flower mantis is still uncommon here in the states and i am hoping to breed them again. Nevertheless it will still be a while before i am really "done" with this generation of orchid and nigerian flower. So... sorry i know some of you will hate me for this!!

desert pebble, florida bark, grass mantis - have to go with Eremiaphilla. They are hatching left and right for me right now, i am hoping to see them becoming popular here, it is a very nice species i have to say. They are so lovely that i am worry i might fail to breed them, so i will most likely sell some to breeders here, two breeders is always better than 1 breeder!! The other two species are local species and there is always a chance to get them again, but i will certainly get back to florida bark one day.

BUdwing, african twig, ghost - i am not sure which one to keep!! they are all pretty species but i am probably going to get rid of them all :? .

Peruvian stick vs Texas Unicorn - well, i need to keep both of them, but my time will be on the later species. They are both tough species to breed which is what i heard but i am ready to break the myth (hopefully).

Asian giant, boxer, north african - most likely boxer, although they are all doing very well for me right now.

I'm hoping to get a few more rare species to breed... which is why i need to get rid some of them in the first hand.

 
i'm glad you're keeping p. wahlberggii, they are a very interesting species. i think i'm going to give up on breeding mine. i tried many times but the male is just not interested. i've talked to a few people that have breed them and tried their techniques but none worked. i guess my male is a dud. :(

 
You will have to excuse me for interjecting this in, Yen Saw, but I think it is a wonderful thing that you were able to breed the orchids so well and I am sad to see that you decided not to continue breeding them.

I have had to take a look at my small mantis collection in the past too, and have had to think of my insect priorities vs. other priorities. Because of all of the other priorities in my life I decided a while ago that I could only focus on one or two species at a time. When you have a family it can sometimes be pretty taxing on the family to always be taking care of the mantids.

I am sure that whatever you decide to do, you will do well at it.

 
Wuwu, it is like a lottery in mating this beautiful species (spiny flower). I have a male that never interested in mating and i have another two male that have no problem at all when pairing up with another female. So each of them has their own character. Give it another try, keep the place warm before introduce both of them in the same net cage. Good luck.

Jay, thanks! i am really thinking of going back and breed dead leaf mantis again. But my effort will be on Texas unicorn, pebble desert, and boxer for now. But i will have petty much the rest of my current culture available until they are all sold for this generation.

 
I may be chiming in late, but after a lot of thinking, I'd keep the following 4 species for sure.

Spiney flower mantis - P. Wahlbergii

I still can't get over how alien they look.

Desert pebble mantis - Eremiaphilla sp.

Incredibly cute little species. As Christian mentioned it'd be interesting to watch what behavior they exhibit.

Boxer mantis - Otomantis sp.

I just like them and haven't had the opportunity to try my hand at them.

Grass mantis - Thesprotia Graminis

Seems like an interesting species to watch develop.

 
Lilian, yes i would like to continue the first three species you mentioned but grass mantis is pretty common here and they are not difficult to raise so i am going to drop it from my list. Thanks for your kind feedback. If you like grass mantis i will send you a few with your current order tomorrow, that would help saving more flies for others :)

 
Some e-mail from hobbyists and protest from my son make me change my mind on dropping orchid mantis. So orchid stays in the list! However, i will have to let Peruvian stick mantis go in order to accommodate some new species which hopefully be available in my culture soon. They are Oxypilus distinctus, Pseudoharpax virescens, Pnignomantis sp. and also re-populate these wonderful species - Dead leaf ( Deroplatys sp) and devil flower (B. mendica). Lets hope this will come true.

Again, thanks for everyone who spare time to share their thought here.

 
Some e-mail from hobbyists and protest from my son make me change my mind on dropping orchid mantis. So orchid stays in the list! However, i will have to let Peruvian stick mantis go in order to accommodate some new species which hopefully be available in my culture soon. They are Oxypilus distinctus, Pseudoharpax virescens, Pnignomantis sp. and also re-populate these wonderful species - Dead leaf ( Deroplatys sp) and devil flower (B. mendica). Lets hope this will come true.Again, thanks for everyone who spare time to share their thought here.
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oh no, i was thinking about dropping peruvian stick mantids too.

 
Ah bummer!! I trust Perry will be able to continue this species. Although he is the only person i know holding a good size culture for this species. I still have an ooth for this species incubating right now.

ALRIGHT! Woot!!!
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Only wish my son can be more helpful in rearing this species.

 
Some e-mail from hobbyists and protest from my son make me change my mind on dropping orchid mantis.
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Peer pressure strikes again! ;) Not-so-secretly though, I'm glad you're keeping them.

 
Some e-mail from hobbyists and protest from my son make me change my mind on dropping orchid mantis.
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Peer pressure strikes again! ;) Not-so-secretly though, I'm glad you're keeping them.
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Yeah Lili, i cracked under pressure. :roll:

Either way now i will have to deal with all these orchid hatchling. Another orchid ooth hatched out around 100 nymph yesterday. After going through the record, found out it was the third consecutive ootheca from the same female which hatched out over 100 nymph (1st ooth - 130 nymphs, 2nd ooth - 120 nymphs), and i have her fourth and fifth oothecae incubating. Guess her future babies alone will fill up all my net cages. :evil: Glad i let few ooth from another female went to Poland (Empiu), one of it hatched out hundred nymphs as well or i am in serious trouble finding excess fruit flies.

 
Hi Jay, yes i am going to continue to the third generation instead of letting them all go. I sold out all the large orchid recently after deciding to drop this species. Now my breeding stock are only L3 so there will be a gap soon as my Orchid females are getting into 5-6 ootheca now, but i am sure other breeders here will fill up the gap. It would be interesting to see how the inbreeding affects the hatching rate (not planning to intorduce newblood) but so far it is the same.

 
personally I would just keep trying to find an efficient routine to take care of them all(I'm greedy like that), but if you have to only keep some then I think you should pick like this:

1-2 mantis that you personally enjoy very much

1+ mantis that is popular and easily managed(for the beginners, like me)

2+ mantis that are rare/hard to breed in captivaty

1+ mantis that is an active hunter(vicious)/ground dwelling hunter

i think the Texas Unicorn Mantis would be a really nice thing to keep by the looks of pics I've seen.

 
Thanks colddigger for your input, i am working towards that direction as well. I figured the only way for me to try as many species as possible is too keep only one generation of each species, unfortunately this also means dropping some species eventhough they are nice and pretty. Hopefully I can reduce my breeding species to only 5 by the end of this year, if only i can resist more new species which I failed miserably this year :x

1+ mantis that is popular and easily managed(for the beginners, like me)
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If you can handle beginner species, there is really only little extra effort from you to step up to an "intermediate" species.

 

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