Violin Mantis, GONGYLUS GONGYLODES

[Darkrai283]

[25.01.15]

I picked up 2 nymphs (one subadult, one pre-subadult) at the S.E.A.S today...

I was so annoyed when I got back and realised that I had bought two males!

What happened was that I sexed a pair and left them to the side at the very start of the show, then had a look around on other tables and when I got back to that stand, there were two cups on the side where I had left the sexed pair earlier... so I thought that they were them and bought them without checking. Stupid me!

Subadult male pics
IMG_2370 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
IMG_2352 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
IMG_2367 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[Darkrai283]

[27.01.14]

Good news. I managed to find someone selling a subadult female so she should be coming sometime next week from outside the UK.

Video of the subadult male

 

[dmina]

Congrats on the find...glad you found a girl to go with your boys... Love your plants... Keep us updated..

 

[Darkrai283]

[05.02.15]

The subadult female arrived.

Pics with the subadult male who is going to be moulting soon:

Untitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr
Untitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr
Untitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[Darkrai283]

[08.02.15]

Oh man, that's the first male down. :'(

He started moulting to adult just before I went to eat dinner so I took this photo then. When I came back, his antennae and raptorials had gotten stuck so his thorax had 'snapped' in half and his body was very deformed. I hope this doesn't happen with the one pair I have left.

Untitled by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[Darkrai283]

[13.02.14]

A photo of the subadult female's pattern/colouration of her coxa.

IMG_2663 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[CosbyArt]

Sorry about your male, what a shame. Pretty color on your female though

 

[macromatt]

Amazing!

 

[dmina]

Sorry for your troubles... the color is beautiful.. best wishes for the other molts... Keep us updated...

 

[Darkrai283]

[16.02.15]

The younger male moulted to subadult today.

VIDEO:

 

[Darkrai283]

[19.02.15]

Dat colouration tho... (subadult male)

IMG_2762 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[Darkrai283]

[31.03.15]

Seeing how I have both sexes as subadults now (again), I decided to do some comparison shots.

Head Shot by Darkrai283, on Flickr
Pronotum Shots by Darkrai283, on Flickr
Wingbud Shots by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[Darkrai283]

[17.03.15]

Oh man, these things make me want to kill myself lol. She was in the perfect pre-moult position for hours and hours.... up until the few second before she started pumping her abdomen and broke the exoskeleton on her back. She stupidly decided to change the position of one of her back legs, which ended up with her having extremely bowed legs which are no use at all.

IMG_1923 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
IMG_1930 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
IMG_1940 by Darkrai283, on Flickr
IMG_1957 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[Darkrai283]

[22.03.15]

I had to put her down in the freezer today so here's a pic I took of her just before removing her from the tank.

IMG_2040 by Darkrai283, on Flickr

 

[dmina]

Man... that is such bad luck... you got some beautiful pic of them..