P. paradoxa showing good memory?

[captainmerkin]

Hi just to say that one of my P. paradoxa is doing very strange things today.

I have been watching it for a few days as it seems the most aggressive out of all of these I have together and its colouration is different from the others, most being dark coloured and this a very pale colour.

Today I looked in my tank and could not find it anywhere, so I looked around the room and found the little blighter on the blind about 2 meters from the tank, not sure how it made the jump or if it did a dive off the tank. None-the-less I put it back in with the others and took a seat.

Less than a minute later it had climbed up a vine jumped onto the roof of the tank and run out of a little hole I had not noticed before...

I caught it and put it back, less than two minutes after it did EXACTLY the same again, same route across the vines and jump then up and escape... it repeated this four times always running to the same starting point in the tank then the exact same route and escape..

I have now sealed the hole in the mesh and the little bugger is just sat there hanging from where the hole used to be..

cheeky little bugger!

on a side note, these all shed to 4th instar over two weeks ago, but 1 has not shed as of yet, will not eat and seems to still very active! is this ok?

 

[OGIGA]

Be careful. It might get smart enough and take over your house! jk

 

[captainmerkin]

that more likely to be my missus if I don't get her some frogs and a chameleon!

 

[robo mantis]

Watch out it, may pull a knife on you lol

 

[AFK]

more likely, your mantis took the same route for the exact same reasons it picked it the first time around. the reasons for him/her to choose that route probably just appealed to his/her instincts and those reasons still existed the second time around, hence the same route. given our human imagination, our mantis's repeat adventures could appear to transcend instinct.

 

[randyardvark]

ie light.... mantids fllow light and travell upwards as often as they can untill they reach areas of high light intensity as this is where they would find the most food in the wild

 

[captainmerkin]

yeah but the top of the tank is currently one of the darker spots in it!

I think its probably a Ureanos Lemmingos get an urge to migrate once a year..

Well it seems to have stopped doing it now the hole is sealed and has gone down to sit in a fern!

 

[OGIGA]

I think they like to go up because they're looking for a good place to hang. They seem a lot more comfortable hanging upsidedown vs. standing upright.

 

[captainmerkin]

yeah true indeed... but I do have a few that have their favourite spots, one of the little buggers is always on a fern standing upright looking lost.. the others all hang