Does it depend on the parents, or is it random? I ended up with some solid green and some brown with green stripes last time, but they came from more than one ooth. However, I gave a single Chinese ooth to a friend and all of those mantids grew up to be brown with green stripes. Is one color generally more common than the other?
What determines which color a Chinese mantis will grow up to be?
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sally
Well-known member
The ooth I hatched last month had both brown and green nymphs. They are pre sub and sub adult now. I released most, but kept a few of each color 
Thanks for the replies. The genetics part is fairly straightforward, but what about environment? Does it have to do with colors in the habitat, or is it more complicated?
@sally: What colors did the mantids you mentioned turn out to be as adults? Did the brown ones stay brown and the green ones stay green, or were there surprises?
@sally: What colors did the mantids you mentioned turn out to be as adults? Did the brown ones stay brown and the green ones stay green, or were there surprises?
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sally
Well-known member
The 3 adult females I kept turned out brown. When I put their cages outside to attract males maybe I will see some adults of the others that I released. I have only seen one outside so far, a green subadult.
ScienceGirl
Well-known member
Agreed.
There are certain traits that are more dominant (Punnet Square, anyone? :smarty: LOVE THOSE THINGS!!!). It also depends on the environment. I know that in my area, green plants make up the majority, and the colors of mantids that I see reflect that observation.
minomantis
Well-known member
For the longest time I never understood this and it's still very confusing. For me the very first mantis I found was brown and I didn't even know they could turn green. When I figured they could, that was my mission, but I didn't know how! I read everywhere and they all said higher humidity produces green mantids and lower produces brown. Tested it and nothing. (I will admit that in my experiences, in higher humidity's even brown mantids will get a little lighter in color but they won't turn green.) I think that a mantids color is already determined upon exiting the ootheca, pattern and color wise. I don't know how, but I have this feeling that mantids know what color they are therefor they know what plant they should hang on or not. I think that over time in a certain area that is mostly green and there are green and brown mantids, the brown mantids will naturally get eaten causing the green to survive and procreate producing more green young that will survive from the ootheca in the next season. I think environment plays a role on a long term scale as opposed to a short term scale. So if that area started to die off and go brown, then the brown nymphs that were born will have a higher survival rate then the green and so on. So on a short term, I think genetics play a much stronger roll within the season and on a long term scale is environment. Not saying that they're aren't exceptions but yea. So I guess if one wanted a green mantis, they would just have to hope there will be one in the egg case. Tell me what you think about this. This is just my thought.
minomantis
Well-known member
And not to beat this topic to a pulp, but I had a completely green L6 female who molted 2 days ago and is now completely brown with a green tint. So it has to be genetics that determine their color within a season because she was in a completely green habitat.
Do you have any pics of her before and after the color change? That would be cool to see. If you don't, you should take a few before she molts again.
