Rhombodera experiments

[Chambord]

Hello! I'm pretty new here, but I thought this little experiment of mine with R. Basalis would prove interesting. I currently own two beautiful R. Basalis, I got them as nymphs around L3 or 4. Before I purchased both nymphs, I had seen a "morph" from 2018 of a 'red devil' Rhombodera species. The link to the images/post will be below. I was curious about said "morph" and wanted to do some testing. Nothing insane haha, busy with finals and school, BUT I did find something interesting. Fish keepers typically keep fish they want to have darker colors in darker tanks and backgrounds and fish they want to express lighter colors in lighter substrate more light, etc. The thought intrigued me, and I decided to do that with my nymphs. Rosemary, the first has been kept in darkness for much of her life, while I leave matcha in almost constant light. I am unsure if this is a genetic trait, or if this is an environmental trait, which is something I should have controlled for, but I believe the pair are from the same ootheca and are siblings. Anyways, lmk what you guys think! Is there a difference? Do you guys think it's genetic or environmental?



breeder for the red morph below

http://exo-factory.pl/en/glowna/272-rhombodera-sp-red-devil.html

 

[MrGhostMantis]

That is a different sub species not a morph.

 

[Chambord]

What do you think of the mantises though? I purchased them from a different breeder entirely and they were marketed as Rhombodera Basalis, the pigmentation on the hood seemed interesting to me, I'm really just curious if anyone else has done something like this before too.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

The pigmentation is curious. I think it may be average. I have heard of it with orchids and ghosts, not these though. Super creative to think about using the background.

 

[Chambord]

Thanks! Either way, beautiful species, can't wait to see how both turn out as adults

 

[Mantid-Tim]

Just wanted to add, I have two Rhombodera: R. exenticollis adult (aka Rhonda) and R. megaera L5 (aka Megan). 

Rhonda is an adult albino. White with some red in the eyes. (Like an old no-red-eye-photo color). Megan is a nice green. I love Rhomboderas. Just saying...

Yours is gorgeous. Mine look more like hierodula, they don't have that giant shield. Awesome Rhombodera; enjoy!

 

[Chambord]

Woah, that's pretty neat! I didn't do too much research into the topic before I started this. I didn't realize that albino morphs were visible in difference from the wild types. I know that in some beetles they get just white eyes, so it makes sense the eyes would be red here. Maybe I should try to breed some albino rhomoboderas  instead! haha

 

[Ax55]

I remember seeing red and green color Morphs of Helvia Cardinalis from an instagram breeder.

 

[Chambord]

Wow, those would make for some very pretty mantises! I wonder what kind of morphs do exist for invertebrates and how they would interact with each other!

 

[Sticky]

Exo factory is a scammer. 

 

[Ax55]

Exo factory is a scammer. 

True, we don't even know if this "Rhombodera sp. Red Devil" really exists. All of the photos of this species are from him.