Very flighty mantis

[Connor]

Hello, my sphodromantis lineola has recently gotten very "flighty". He/she moves very fast and freaks out some times(just goes super fast). This happened right after I finished feeding, I actually lost a mantis for the first time, don't worry I found him after much stress, he was right were I lost him ironically. And recently I put him in a vivarium that I set up for my ghosts coming in(it is way to big for him), and just recently when I went to check on him he freaked out when he saw me and started sprinting around(second time this happened). So my question is, is this just a behavioral thing for the speices or is he stressed with such a big enclosure? Or maybe something else?

 

[mantisfan101]

Don't worry. All males are skittish, while some flower mantids (phyllocrania, hymenopus, creobroter) being more skittish than others. For species with more aggressive fenales, the males generally can fly much more and longer than others.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Yep this is very common for adult males. From an evolution standpoint it makes sense. They can now fly well enough to escape danger so if they are scared they tend to fly/jump/drop first and ask questions later. Some species are more skittish then some and then some individuals within the species are just more jumpy then others. A big cage will not stress your boys out. Personally I find large cages less stressful for them as they tend to want to roam/fly around at night in search of ladies and watching them crash around in tiny enclosures desperate to move is maddening.

In my experience boys tend to get calmer once you initially get them out their cage and they get over the initial surprise of hands coming at them. Pick an area that isn't cluttered where you can easily spot them if they decide to take wing. Be mindful if you have any hot lights in the area as they will often fly to light and you don't want them to be burned. Also watch out for vents or other cracks where a mantis could easily get out of your reach. The smaller species often end up going backwards/spiraling to the side when flying in a room with no airflow so it can make their movements a little hard to track at times. I've laughed more than a couple times at boys that were clearly trying to fly to a nearby object only for them to land a foot backwards of where they started.

My final advice would be to handle your boys in the daylight hours. Once darkness hits they tend to get a lot more flighty as the desire to hunt down lady mantises kicks in.

 

[Connor]

Don't worry. All males are skittish, while some flower mantids (phyllocrania, hymenopus, creobroter) being more skittish than others. For species with more aggressive fenales, the males generally can fly much more and longer than others.

Yeah I was doing some research on the males being skittish and such. Thanks for the reply 

Yep this is very common for adult males. From an evolution standpoint it makes sense. They can now fly well enough to escape danger so if they are scared they tend to fly/jump/drop first and ask questions later. Some species are more skittish then some and then some individuals within the species are just more jumpy then others. A big cage will not stress your boys out. Personally I find large cages less stressful for them as they tend to want to roam/fly around at night in search of ladies and watching them crash around in tiny enclosures desperate to move is maddening.

In my experience boys tend to get calmer once you initially get them out their cage and they get over the initial surprise of hands coming at them. Pick an area that isn't cluttered where you can easily spot them if they decide to take wing. Be mindful if you have any hot lights in the area as they will often fly to light and you don't want them to be burned. Also watch out for vents or other cracks where a mantis could easily get out of your reach. The smaller species often end up going backwards/spiraling to the side when flying in a room with no airflow so it can make their movements a little hard to track at times. I've laughed more than a couple times at boys that were clearly trying to fly to a nearby object only for them to land a foot backwards of where they started.

My final advice would be to handle your boys in the daylight hours. Once darkness hits they tend to get a lot more flighty as the desire to hunt down lady mantises kicks in.

Thanks for the detailed response! I really appreciate it. Since I've posted this I have definitely learned that the males are super skittish. Thanks for the tips on handling, I'll keep them in mind. Haha that's hilarious that they will end up going backwards.