Variation in Mantid Color

[LinkAAD]

Alright so I was looking at pictures of an African Mantis and I saw that there are two main forms: a rich green form and a dark brown form. I'm not talking about anything that has to do with genetics, I actually think humidity has somthing to do with this, but in short, what causes variations in colors of mantids of the same species?

 

[Vlodek]

Hi,

Actually mantids from genus Pseudocreobotra are between L1-L3 brown-black with white spots. When they will be L4-adult they change color to green-white but I saw nymphs that were red-green, blue-green or yellow-green. Over here are some pictures of colorfull nymphs from genus Pseudocreobotra:

http://www.mantisphotos.com/pictures/Pseud...obotraPink3.jpg

http://www.mantisphotos.com/pictures/Pseud...obotraPink2.jpg

http://www.mantisphotos.com/pictures/Pseud...raOcellata6.jpg

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

i heard that Pseudocreobotra changes colour sometimes by visual cues. with mantids colour variations can be because of temperature, lighting, humidity, sex, genetics, visual cues, age, i'm sure the list goes on...

obviously there'll only be set shades and colours each species is able to go to

there's many threads about this topic on here if you have a search

 

[Rick]

I'm not so sure it has anything to do with humidity. I keep all mantids of the same species in the same conditions and the colors vary.

 

[yen_saw]

Humidity has no effect on my african mantis that is causing the color variation, but humidity, lighting, and color on environment definately works on spiny flower mantis and orchid mantis.

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

i assumed it was genetics with this species, but more of a random sequence of shades to give the offspring a better chance of survival overall ?

has anyone seen lots of the same colour African Mantids in the same places in the wild? or has anyone seen one change colour over a few moults?

 

[julian camilo]

there have been plenty of discussions about this subject on this forum, a quick search should bring you to some interesting discussions.

 

[Techuser]

my h. nymphs are changing colors according to the color of the lid, some green, others yellow