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Look what I found!

I was looking for grasshoppers on the edge of the field today and I thought I saw a giant bright green grasshopper. I looked closer and I saw that it was a mantis! I caught it and put it in a jar with a twig, where it is sitting next to me now. Anyone know if it's male or female?

GreenMantis003.jpg

GreenMantis001.jpg
 
Lucky. I wish I could still catch them. STUPID STORES WE DON'T EVEN NEED! :censor:
 
Your mantis is still a juvenile as indicated by the wing pads. When mature the female will have have a larger abdomen that ends in a triangular shaped ovipositor, whereas a male will be smaller and more slender with a rather flat end to the abdomen.
 
Correct me if im wrong, but i think with mantids that on males their wings are long & they can fly pretty well, while females' wings are too short to function well. So if the wings are long it's probably male, and if they are short it's probably female.
 
I thought they could both fly well, but females are often weighed down by ooths and such. But it's really hard to tell until it has wings. Feed it some flys!
 
Great catch! What you've got there is a healthy Mantis_religiosa (yes thats the scientific name) AKA the European Mantid.
It can be distinguished easily by a black-ringed spot beneath the fore coxae.
I belive yours is a female. Six abdominal segments for females. This is an easy species that requires a diapause over winter in order have successful hatchings. Beginners in the hobby usually fail to provide this "cold period" to the oothecae, and thus result in only a handful of nymphs hatching successfully.

Give it vertical space as well as a mesh lid or something that it can hold on to easily at the top of its container in order for it to molt successfully. Feed it any wild caught flying insects and try to stay away from pet store crickets.

Later in the season go out at night and look for areas that are well lit with fog lights or other bright lights. Males will become attracted to the light and you can catch a mate for your female. Breeding is the best part of the hobby.


See THIS forum for help and additional info.

Correct me if im wrong, but i think with mantids that on males their wings are long & they can fly pretty well, while females' wings are too short to function well. So if the wings are long it's probably male, and if they are short it's probably female.
^It depends on the species. Some native US mantids do show the different wing length between the males and the females. However, the majority of species do not, and females can fly very well when not gravid. The thing is that females often don't need to fly. They release pheromones, and males do the flying.

Hope this helps.
 
I found another one just a few minutes ago! Is it ok to put it in with the other one?
 
Most mantis's can be cannabalistic so I would separate them to be safe. That's how I keep my mantis's.
 
Ohhh that's a neat looking one! Very green! Is it missing a leg in the back?
 
  • #10
Is it missing a leg in the back?

Yeah, my mom was a bit rough when she grabbed it. I would have grabbed it but I didn't want to go get a container and not be able to find it.
 
  • #11
ok, let me help.

first, join mantidforum.com.

now, you caught some nice looking Mantis religosa nymphs. To tell the sexes apart, count the segments. <7=female, >7=male. The are nymphs, meaning the are not mature and cannot be mated. Yet. Once they mature (by shedding their old skin for a new one, and thus increasing their size), if you are lucky enough toget a pair, they can be maited. They are mature when they have wings. NO SOONER.

For now, focus on keeping them healthy. They require nice ventilation (no stuffy stagnant containers), a shady spot/indoors under a light to avoid overheating, and prey items. Keep them under 70% humidity, but no lower than 30% to aid in shedding. Shedding is the most vulnerable time in a mantids life, and a bad one can result in death or injury. M. religosa takes about any bug 1/2 its size or smaller. it is a notorious under-achiever, often getting scared at things smaller mantids could take no problem. Also, they are nototirous for dying without cause. So, if they do dye, it may not be entirely your fault.

Hope this helps!
Frankie
 
  • #12
I joined mantidforum about a month ago. I put one in a 10 gallon tank, I took a small branch from my friends bamboo bush thing and put it in a pot (he buried a nearly dead branch and it grew into a huge bush), I put damp paper towels at the bottom, and I stuck a cricket and a moth in there. She's not eating but she did do some kind of strike thing at the cricket. The other one is in a 2 liter bottle, there's some wet paper towels at the bottom, and there's a housefly in there with her/him. There's also a leafy branch from some plant and a twig. Will a coffe filter on top of the 2 liter bottle let enough ventilation/air in for the mantid?
 
  • #13
AHHH! not crickets! i presume they are from the pet store, and if so, take it out immediatly! they are fed things that the mantids do not like, and start vomiting almost as soon as they eat the cricket. This "diseaes" often results in death.

The moth sounds good though. Your containers sound almost too big! take a look at (mods, if this is against the rules, please take it out. im not trying to mess up here or advertise or anything! :) ) http://www.mantisplace.com/insectcups.html. if you'd rather put moist spagnum in the bottom, that'd work too. Thats what i do! the ventilation should be fine. Not optimum but not terrible either. ;)

Hope it all works out!
 
  • #14
No, I caught it in the field right around where I caught the mantids. I don't even think it's a cricket, just a small colorful grasshopper. I wouldn't need to go to a pet store to get crickets or grasshoppers, just walk into the field with a net and they fling up all over. Yeah, I thought the container might be a bit big for just one mantid. I'll try to figure out how to divide it in half. How do I give them water? Do they just drink it off the paper towels, or do they need a dish? Do they need some kind of artificial light? And how often do they need to eat? One more thing. If they live around here, how do they survive the extremely cold winters? Do they need some kind of winter dormancy in their tanks?
 
  • #15
oh. that works then! you are lucky to have such a food source around!
try putting a piece of glass/plexiglass/cardboard/etc...that fits very snugly in the terrarium to seperate them. more than one seperation can mean for more species.
they get most of their water from prey. if you want to see them actually drink mist them. You should probably mist them every 3 days too.
light would be welcomed, but not needed. Mine are under desk lamps.
to see if they are hungry, look at their abdomens (last chunk). If it is very round it is stuffed. Concave = starving. Flat is prefect. Kinda like humans.
Sorry to break this, but they die in the winter. They only live a few months. But the females (if they have mated) lay oothecas (eggcases) with a thick wall of foam. Inside, their are 200+ eggs waiting until things warm up.
 
  • #16
Are there any kinds that live for years? They're such big insects compared to most others, they seem like they would live at least a couple years.
 
  • #17
no, sorry.
 
  • #18
Dang.. When/where are there any wild oothecas to look for?
 
  • #19
late fall, early winter. umm, usually trees, sticks, posts, etc...kinda hit and miss.
 
  • #20
I would like to address the leg issue. Your mantid looks like its nearing adulthood. It may have only one or two molts to go (one can tell by looking at the wing buds). If it will go through two more molts, then the missing leg may regenerate completely. If not, then it will partially regenerate.

Since mantids are arthropods, they always have the chance to regenerate lost or damaged limbs. The more moltings the animal goes through, the better the limb will heal.
 
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