Theopompa servillei

[Velve]

Posting a few pics of these bark dwelling beauties, now that the first male reached adulthood. Genders are easy to tell apart by the male's red coloration on the coxae.

 

[MantisGirl13]

Beautiful mantids!

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Mantis Man13]

That male’s arms look absolutely stunning! The orange, blue, white, black, tan and red colors are so pretty!

 

[Velve]

Things are going well. Two males and one female made it to adulthood so far. I'm loving their patterns.

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Oh wow 

Will offspring be for sale?

 

[FabioFabiatic]

Wow what a stunning species. How big are they and what is their care like?

 

[Velve]

Oh wow 

Will offspring be for sale?

Well, first I'll have to succeed in breeding them.  Time will tell. I don't think I could ship these overseas though. Maybe ooths at best, if there aren't legal troubles.

Wow what a stunning species. How big are they and what is their care like?

On the bigger side for bark mantis standards, but not that big overall. My female is a little bit under 5cm(~2 in) and my males are about 5,5cm(~2,16 in) long. Their huge wings give them a good bit of additional size though, especially for the males they reach far over the abdomen. My female looks a bit small compared to the males because of that, I'll hopefully see whether that's normal or if my second female grows bigger than that.

As for their care, they originate from Indonesia, so warm temperatures and higher humidity. In the tanks are some sheets of pressed cork, thick branches and pieces of rougher bark. Sometimes they make use of the cork/bark and press against it or even hide in crevices, sometimes they just sit on the ceiling like other mantids.

Here's a comparison to dead females of H. coronatus and P. paradoxa, if that helps give you a sense of scale.

Male and female.

Her wings have darkened a bit over the past days.

Hard to get good angles that show their psuedopupils.

 

[MantisMart]

Wow! Those are awesome! 

 

[Mantis Lady]

Never seen this species before. They are beautiful.

 

[Velve]

Looking good so far! Both females have mated without much trouble. The male's initial jumps caused both females to freak out at first and run a few panic laps with the male on their back, but luckily they did not start attacking them and calmed down. The actual copulation started pretty quickly.

 

[MantisGirl13]

Nice! Congrats!

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Mantis Lady]

Mantis love ( hopefully no head lost)

 

[Velve]

The first ooth hatched today! I incubated it in the mother's tank just to be safe for the first time, parameter-wise. Yielded me about 20 nymphs, which took a bit of time to scoop out of there. They like sticking to one surface, so once a nymph is on your hand they tend to run a few loops around it rather than jumping into their new enclosure.

And some more pics of the adults.

 

[MantisGirl13]

So tiny! Congrats!

- MantisGirl13

 

[Mystymantis]

Absolutely stunning pictures! What species are they? They look very similar to Grizzled mantises but with more color and different wings. Beautiful species I must say! What camera and lens are you using to get your pictures?

Congratz on the matings and nymphs!

 

[Velve]

Absolutely stunning pictures! What species are they? They look very similar to Grizzled mantises but with more color and different wings. Beautiful species I must say! What camera and lens are you using to get your pictures?

Congratz on the matings and nymphs!

Thanks! They are indonesian bark mantids, Theopompa servillei. I use a Canon Powershot SX730 HS.

First hatch is at L3 now. Here in comparison to a female.

L1 and L3

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Nice! Great species!

 

[MantisMart]

Those are really cool! I definitely hope to get some one day.

 

[Mystymantis]

Thanks! They are indonesian bark mantids, Theopompa servillei. I use a Canon Powershot SX730 HS.

First hatch is at L3 now. Here in comparison to a female.

They certainly are a cool species thanks! Never heard of them but looks to be an awesome species!

Wow you use a point and shoot to get such awesome pictures! I totally thought it was a DSLR camera you were using. Awesome job!

Awwww the nymphs are so cute and tiny!