some pics from Houston museum of science

[yen_saw]

Went for Houston museum of science for easter today, manage to take some pics including D. desiccata and Hierodula Stalli in the insect zoo.

 

[MicroMantis]

beautiful, breathtaking, funny frog. I have to get there soon. I haven't been there in a while.

WAIT, notice anything strange about the sheild mantis?

 

[Andrew]

In the 5th pic, that isnt a hierodula. Thats a Taumantis Sigiana.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[yen_saw]

That's a dead leaf mantis James. A male dead leaf and was hanging close to one of the two oothecae in the cage. The label named the 5th pic mantids as Hierodula Stalli, they could be wrong though Andrew, there were many nymphs hatched from two oothecae, i was tempted to open the cage and sneak out few oothecae :twisted:

 

[Andrew]

Heck, I probably would have. Just take an ootheca and leave a $20.00 bill in the cage. Im sure they wont mind. Lol, J/K. :lol:

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[Andrew]

Im 99.9% sure that that is a T. Sigiana. Look at the terra-typica database entry for this species: http://ttwebbase.dyndns.org/mantid/view/195.html

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[yen_saw]

Hey Andrew, you are right!! It is 100% T. Sigiana because the ootheca in the museum look exactly the same, they are many nymphs in the cage too, will let them know if they will give me free nymphs or ootheca for free, i will share them with you Andrew :wink:

 

[Ian]

Andrew, you got there before me! It is definately a taumantis, I had a small culture of those going, of which an ooth I traded with you I think andrew??? You can tell by the promonant light green oval shaped ooth, a lovely spp.

Cheers,

Ian

 

[Jesse]

That dead-leaf is not D. desiccata, I think it may be Deroplatys horrificata! Do they have people working at the museum that know how to care and breed these mantids? Or did they just import wildcaught specimens and stick them in a cage?

 

[Andrew]

How can you tell that its D. Horrificata? Because of the ootheca?

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[Andrew]

Andrew, you got there before me! It is definately a taumantis, I had a small culture of those going, of which an ooth I traded with you I think andrew??? You can tell by the promonant light green oval shaped ooth, a lovely spp.Cheers,

Ian

Yeah, I traded an S. Limbata ooth to you for it, but it never hatched. Are you still keeping this species?

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[yen_saw]

Jesse, that is a big museum here and there is an insect zoo manager. It was labelled as D. Desiccata but you are right looks like DH instead. I need to let them know about this it's very misleading. I am not sure if they are wild caught or CB, but they were import from other countries and they have many different types of mantids i remember seeing some orchid mantis there, huge one with oothecae. The mantids section may have been neglected because there are many newly hatched nymphs of T. Sigiana together with the mother so they will be eaten by the mom i'm sure and also the mis-labelling. There is another container labelled as european mantids but it doesn't look like one for me (I didn't take the pic).

 

[Jesse]

I can't tell for sure, its just an educated guess. It may even be D. lobata, but it looks too large to be a lobata.

 

[Chris Dickie]

nice pics

the frog is a waxy monkey tree frog - phyllomedusa sp (may have spelt that wrong)

 

[Joe]

And thats not a male, thats a female D. horrificata.. just insuring

Joe

 

[Orin]

The mantis in the picture is a female Deroplatys lobata

I recently was tricked too by D.lobata labeled with the misnomer D. horrificata, there is no such species. I labeled my pics, checked the scientific literature (pronotum drawings) and said oops, D.lobata. The zoos buy them from a Malaysian insect "farm" that labels them differently each time.

There are only 3 Deroplatys species:

D.truncata

D.desiccata

D.lobata

 

[Jesse]

Thanks for the clarification Orin. And nice photos Yen Saw.

 

[yen_saw]

Orin, there is species name Deroplatys horificata/ D. anguscata. The butterfly farm in Penang island (Malaysia) is breeding them. The attached link also provide reserch report about rare mantis in Malaysia including yellow flower mantis.

http://www.butterfly-insect.com/butterfly-...ct/r&b.html

Well i could be wrong! if that's the case the breeding center is wrong too :!: :?:

 

[Ian]

Arrr, Yen, the home of the yellow flower mantis!

Cheers,

Ian