grob
Well-known member
Hopefully you guys aren't too jaded to hear a beginners story...
So I got my first two mantids, two ghosts, Phyllocrania paradoxa, from Rebecca as part of a starter kit.
Everything arrived in great shape, both looked very healthy.
The housefly pupae hadn't eclosed yet but I had some melanogasters and I watched the one ghost eat two - the other wasn't interested.
I ran around outside looking for flies for the finicky one, to no avail. Well, half of the hf pupae I put in a cooling down oven (80-90F) and the next day I had a few flies.
The ghost that ate fruit flies (we'll call him Klaus for simplicity, although I'm beginning to wonder if Klaus is really Klausina) hunted down a hf and happily ate it.
The finicky one (we'll call her Loretta) was interested, lunged a few times, but nothing. Hmm, is Loretta dim, or maybe getting ready to molt? I'll take the fly out and try again tomorrow.
Today I got home from work to this scene:
Loretta! We hardly knew ye!
But wait, there's a mantis on top of the lid:
Any reasonable person would have figured out what happened, but in my noob moment I wondered, "Hmm, why are there suddenly two? Some sort of disturbance in the space-time continuum? Could this be Schrödinger's mantis?"
Of course, all is well, and Loretta has emerged as Loretta 2.0, or maybe it's 4.0 by now.
I guess what threw me is Loretta seemed very interested in the fly and stalked it. I heard that mantids bat at prey when they were getting ready to moult, but I thought that would be only when the fly got too close. Interesting.
So I got my first two mantids, two ghosts, Phyllocrania paradoxa, from Rebecca as part of a starter kit.
Everything arrived in great shape, both looked very healthy.
The housefly pupae hadn't eclosed yet but I had some melanogasters and I watched the one ghost eat two - the other wasn't interested.
I ran around outside looking for flies for the finicky one, to no avail. Well, half of the hf pupae I put in a cooling down oven (80-90F) and the next day I had a few flies.
The ghost that ate fruit flies (we'll call him Klaus for simplicity, although I'm beginning to wonder if Klaus is really Klausina) hunted down a hf and happily ate it.
The finicky one (we'll call her Loretta) was interested, lunged a few times, but nothing. Hmm, is Loretta dim, or maybe getting ready to molt? I'll take the fly out and try again tomorrow.
Today I got home from work to this scene:
Loretta! We hardly knew ye!
But wait, there's a mantis on top of the lid:
Any reasonable person would have figured out what happened, but in my noob moment I wondered, "Hmm, why are there suddenly two? Some sort of disturbance in the space-time continuum? Could this be Schrödinger's mantis?"
Of course, all is well, and Loretta has emerged as Loretta 2.0, or maybe it's 4.0 by now.
I guess what threw me is Loretta seemed very interested in the fly and stalked it. I heard that mantids bat at prey when they were getting ready to moult, but I thought that would be only when the fly got too close. Interesting.
