Playin Possum

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mantisboy

mantisboy

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The Mantid madness never ends around my house as I found another female on my mailbox this morning. She was in the prone position when I placed her in a Tupperware container. Currently she is giving me an Academy Award winning performance of playing dead. Antennaes up and abdomen pulsing she is not fooling me. Amazing how committed they are to this type of evasion/deception when they feel threatened. She'll come around.

 
Doesn't sound like a true playing possum. Some species literally play dead. This doesn't sound like the behavior you're describing. Some will fall to the ground like this and not move for awhile:

mantids108-1.jpg


 
A couple of my Chinese have done the stick impression. I have even picked one up like that and she stayed still even with the touching. After I put her down, she stayed like that for a few minutes. My Carolina male did it a couple of times and he actually looked dead, he folded his legs in and everything. He was afraid of the pop-on top on his new cup,( the old one was mesh with a rubber band). That scared me the first time. :lol:

 
likebugs said:
A couple of my Chinese have done the stick impression. I have even picked one up like that and she stayed still even with the touching. After I put her down, she stayed like that for a few minutes. My Carolina male did it a couple of times and he actually looked dead, he folded his legs in and everything. He was afraid of the pop-on top on his new cup,( the old one was mesh with a rubber band). That scared me the first time. :lol:
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Interesting. My Mantids must be use to me by now. I guess they don't see me as a treat. It would be cool to see one play dead though.

-Kevin

 
Seattle79 said:
Interesting. My Mantids must be use to me by now. I guess they don't see me as a treat. It would be cool to see one play dead though.

-Kevin
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The truth of matter is that after 2 or 3 times it's somewhat ridiculous I finally had enough and released her. After playing nurse-maid to a recent mantid I just don't have time for some reincarnated thespian. Not to mention all my mantids are wild, so if she does have some illness it's not worth jeopardizing the health of my other ones. They are doing great and I have every intention of keeping it that way.

The males I leave in their housings, but the females like to come out and hang on the house plants. I took a killer picture of one of my females today, but I need to play with it in Photoshop or it will come out the size of a postage stamp when I attach it.

It really does seem that mantids become familiar with their human caretakers and adapt well to a routine. They know when I have a jar on desk, it's feeding time (at least they look like they now). It also seems like they know when I am going to take them out of their housings and let them hang out on the plants. My kids love it when they crawl on them (totally cool) when they were both bugophobic just a couple of days ago.

My female that mated a couple of days ago has undergone a change, her belly is quite plump. I didn't think there would a physical change for a couple of weeks. She is so big I think I am going to hold off on feeding her for a day. She is such a killing machine I'm sure if I put 6 hoppers in with her, they would be gone in a day.

 
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Seattle79 said:
Mantids playing opossum? I never heard of this before. Is this normal for Mantids?

-Kevin
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I've only had a couple species that truly play dead. They will stiffen up and fall to the ground motionless and remain that way for awhile like in the miomantis I posted above. It is normal behavior. When chinese mantids extend their front legs to look more elongated that isn't playing dead.

 
My dead leaf mantises, especially the one named Gnarles, play dead almost all the time. It's funny when they do, they fold their arms and just lie on their back. Then I poke them gently between their hind legs and they flip around and look up at me. They don't run or anything, they just look up at me, as if they know what is coming next - food.

 
The Taiwan takes the cake for dead! I can't tell u how many I throw away and then have to scoop back up later. :lol: The one Rick took pic of is great, she 's fainted! :lol: The other one that is bad is the baby C. grisea, they do like someone said, fold their legs and dont move. threw away a few the other day! :p

 
haha the mantis nymph almost looks like a shrimp because of the position his legs are in!

 
jamurfjr said:
This Chinese Nymph played possum for me tonight. It was the first time I've witnessed it in person. What a little thespian!
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Hey now, it is clearly pretending to be a twig not a possum. :tt2:

There seem to be two main styles of this behavior. The ones that stretch out like twigs and the ones that crumple their limbs like they are dead.

 
Look at the shrimp pretending to be a twig!

Thanks for the comments. Mantis behavior is such interesting subject manner.

 

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