Got in one of "those" packages yesterday!

Hmm ... What could be in this box?



Almost there ...



There they all are! 4.3 micro predators of the invertebrate type ...



And here is one of the males closer up.

Very cool! Congrats

About half of our Ghost mantids have molted to L3 and the others are already to L4 in the last few days. I'm very pleased that one of the L4s is starting to turn green! Appears the other 2 will be brown.

Our previous one only made it to L4 and was going to be brown. She failed to molt and died though.

Those are so cool! I'm sorry for your loss, but glad that others seem to be doing well!

Are these pets, or a really exotic lizard meal? I didn't think mantises lived long... At least not those big green ones that sit on your car and attack you when you try to get in *shivers*

Originally Posted by Amanda47

Are these pets, or a really exotic lizard meal? I didn't think mantises lived long... At least not those big green ones that sit on your car and attack you when you try to get in *shivers*

These are pets, though not ones to get super attached to individually, as they are short lived and many babies/nymphs don't manage to grow all the way to adulthood. The ones we have in the US start out the size of an ant and only live about 9 months and are cannibalistic.

These are a species from Africa that are communal and live up to 18 months. They are one of the more hardy and basic to care for, which is why I got my feet wet with them. What I really want down the road are some Orchid mantids and the person I got these from breeds those too. They are a little harder to care for and don't live quite as long though. Picture is an Orchid mantis courtesy of Google.

I'm afraid of spiders but my brother and I used to catch the wild mantids and keep them for months all the time when we were growing up. They are actually fairly smart, as far as a bug goes. We never could manage to keep the little babies alive long, were only able to keep the adults though.

Oh cool!!!!!

They are amazing. When I lived out west I had a light green female (she had already killed the male after mating) living in a potted rose tree on the deck. One day a carpenter bee flew too close. One less carpenter bee!

The mantids got an upgrade in caging today, so I took a bunch of pictures. Unfortunately, they are so small it takes a lot of coaxing to convince my camera they DO exist and I DO want it to focus THERE!
Doesn't help that they sway to mimic leaves too. Looks like there are going to be at least 2, possibly 3 green ones so far.