Orchid Mantis: My first mantis! :D

[Synn]

No idea if this is a girl or a guy, and I'm not even certain how old it is, but when I stopped by the East Bay Vivarium expecting to just see some snakes and saw this one little Orchid Mantis sitting there as if waiting for me, I HAD to take him home. I just took a quick pic before I misted his enclosure and now I'll let him get used to his new home. They guy said he GUESSED it was L3 but god only knows. He/She is absolutely tiny! Sorry for the bad pic, my digital blurs everything if I don't use flash, but also bleaches everything with it's flash. Can anyone guess age/sex?

 

[Peter Clausen]

If you can take a photo from an angle from the backside of the abdomen, we can probably provide a better guess as to sex. Or, just count...6 abdominal segments female vs. 8 for male (when viewed from the underside).

Hard to really see for the reasons you described, but if those are wing-buds at the side, then you probably have a male.

Appears older than L3, offhand.

 

[revmdn]

I just got three of them on Tuesday, and they are a little hard to sex. They are so small, and their white coloring doesn't make it any easier. But they are fun. Mine tend to hop around a lot.

 

[idolomantis]

There's only one good diffrence: females grow twice as long, if any of them is longe than 1,2 inches and has short wingbuds it's a female.

if one is about an inch with very large wing buds it's a male.

males also has a more reddish color.

 

[hibiscusmile]

:lol: lets see its little butt! I am thinking from what I see it is a girly! humm, on second count a boy, show its butt. No body look!

 

[bassist]

whaaaaaaaat they told me they wouldn't have any till spring lol.

They lied to me D:

 

[yeatzee]

I count 6 segments making it a female......am i the only one that can see the segments?

 

[bassist]

I count 6 segments making it a female......am i the only one that can see the segments?

Can't always tell when it's not the bottom, I can see the segments but it's best to see the bottom of the abdomen.

 

[Synn]

I count 6 segments, so female? Here's a few pics to see what you guys think, also one showing how small he/she is so you guys can maybe better guess age?

 

[bassist]

wait last segment is small lol male.

 

[pedro92]

Orchids were so hard to sex for me when i had them. i always was changing my mind

 

[hibiscusmile]

Boy! no doubt.

 

[Synn]

Thanks guys!

 

[Dinora]

Good choice! My first mantis is an Orchid, too!

I really need to get a camera soon, I wanna know gender, too!

 

[yeatzee]

Yeah ur right.....its a boy. The second to last pic you can see the last small segments.