papilio's mantids

[papilio]

Okay, everyone who earned their wings yesterday, raise your hands!

 

[McGuiverstein]

That's awesome, congratulations man!!!! Beautiful shots as usual!

Not to derail, but do you have another male who is subadult? I have a sub female and would love to sync up to breed if the timing works out right.

Also, saw insertion with my orchid pair last night. So assuming everything goes right, I may have nymphs for you to take some amazing pictures of if you're interested. Fingers crossed!!

 

[papilio]

That's awesome, congratulations man!!!! Beautiful shots as usual!

Not to derail, but do you have another male who is subadult? I have a sub female and would love to sync up to breed if the timing works out right.

Also, saw insertion with my orchid pair last night. So assuming everything goes right, I may have nymphs for you to take some amazing pictures of if you're interested. Fingers crossed!!

Thanks a lot! I was looking in on it and realized that it was about to commence molting within the next few minutes, so I got to watch from start to finish. I hadn't known that this would be his ultimate molt (somehow I was counting one short of which instars both of my Idolos are in), so I got pretty excited as soon as I saw those crumpled up little wings pulled free from the old exo. I'll get some more shots soon, it's got way more color already and will be pretty amazing in about another week.

I wish I did have another sub male, my own female is a sibling of this guy and I'll have to find another for her when she's ready.


Good luck with the Orchids!! They are so exquisite! I took a vid of one of my (still very tiny) L4s last night, should be posted late today or tomorrow.




p.s. This is pretty funny ... click through to the flickr page on the second image, you don't see that happening every day. hehe And that's my least favorite image of the set ... I've never been able to figure out which of my images people will like.

::

 

[papilio]

I overlooked this shot, one of the best in the series I think.


Idolomantis diabolica, mature male

 

[papilio]

[video=youtube;va5MOju-u30]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va5MOju-u30[/video]
1080p

 

[papilio]

About a week after its maturing molt, the male Idolomantis diabolica really got its color.



From this ...







... to this!


















































Thanks for looking!

Please click on any photo to have its full-page image on SmugMug open in a new tab.

 

[viper69]

These are great!!! As they get larger, have they gotten more bold in coming out and standing their ground, sort of like Ts?

 

[papilio]

These are great!!! As they get larger, have they gotten more bold in coming out and standing their ground, sort of like Ts?

Thanks a lot Chris!

Yup ... this mature Idolo is the first time he's given me that cool threat display!


... and to think, less than six months ago he looked like this. Lightening-quick growth when we're used to raising slings!!

 

[Biollantefan54]

I love this photo! ^^^

 

[papilio]

I love this photo! ^^^

Thanks Biollantefan! I took that at one of our MinnVerts parties.

 

[Biollantefan54]

It looks like it should be a cover of a magazine haha. Looks amazing!

 

[PIaf94]

Congrats on the idolo molting to adulthood!
Not many can say they have. It's a very tricky species to raise, but
It's all worth it in the end. Did the wings come out okay? Noticed them to be curly but
That could be it still pumping them out.

 

[papilio]

Congrats on the idolo molting to adulthood!������
Not many can say they have. It's a very tricky species to raise, but
It's all worth it in the end. Did the wings come out okay? Noticed them to be curly but
That could be it still pumping them out.

Thanks very much! Having only been keeping mantids for less than a year, when I hear that Idolos are difficult I can only conclude that I got lucky as it all seemed to me pretty straightforward (with the one most unfortunate caveat below).

You are correct about the wings failing to form properly, best guess is that it wasn't able to find quite the right angle from which to hang as they expanded. Actually it was a difficult molt all around, in fact if I hadn't been so lucky as to notice its pre-molt behavior when I did, a matter of only ten or fifteen minutes before it actually began slipping out of its old exo, it surely would have died.

While there were sufficient choices from which to hang near the ceiling of the enclosure, it selected instead a very small knot on an otherwise nearly vertical branch far too near the ground. (I was told by my mantis mentor, Precarious, that Idolos will sometimes tend to choose a spot lower down, perhaps as some sort of protection against cannibalism while molting which may occur were they instead higher up and more exposed -- despite the fact that it was alone in its enclosure.) Not too far into the molt it became clear that it would be running aground soon as it continued pouring out of its old skin, so -- with some care, knowing how tentative Idolos' grasp can be -- I reached in and lifted the branch to a greater height, holding it there for the next half hour. At that point it completely cleared the exo and maneuvered back into an upright position from which to inflate the wings, which seemed to be progressing normally until it began to appear that they were not going to end up as they should ... straight, stiff and tight against the abdomen.

In the end it had lost its ability to fly. And perhaps because of this, I discovered him this afternoon, lifeless on the ground of the enclosure. So something of a sad day, I just feel fortunate that I had already taken the second photo shoot of him a week after the molt by which time he had gained his lovely colors. Again consulting Precarious, his idea is that maybe knowing that it was unable to fly and therefore would not, in the wild, find a mate, nature's way of economy was to shorten his life. Sounds plausible, and is an idea which I'm inclined to accept as I can come up with no other explanation.

I do still have the female, and he would not in any case likely have lived long enough to mate with her, his sibling, so when the time comes I hope to find a ready male and have a go at pairing these remarkable creatures!

 

[Twentytwenty]

Great pictures as always. What do you keep them in? Do you mind posting some pictures of the cages?

 

[papilio]

Great pictures as always. What do you keep them in? Do you mind posting some pictures of the cages?

Thanks Twentytwenty!

I'd be glad to except that, other than for the large Idolos whose enclosures I have pictured above, my mantids are either in cheap 4x4x6-inch acrylic cubes or just 32-oz deli cups, each with only a bit of dry substrate and a couple of fake flower stems or just twigs for them to hang on. I intend to upgrade sometime to nicer enclosures, when I do I'll remember to post some pics of them.




Phyllocrania paradoxa, Ghost mantis male

 

[PIaf94]

I'm saddened to hear you male had passed away
I wish the best of luck with your female. I've noticed their strange molting
behavior aswell. They go for the lowest branch and to the far corner if possible with mine. There is truth to them
molting on the low branch to avoid cannibalism. One of my females
almost ate her tank tank mate while molting. Guess she saw an opertunity
and went for it. Good thing she only grabbed the skin before I intervened.
I have a few extra male idolos if your interested in breeding. One is in sub adult
With my females and the other 5 are pre-sub. I only have two females so
Some the males won't get on some of the action :/

 

[papilio]

Thanks a lot Plaf, good to have that theory confirmed. I have mine in hex cubes, and always before they had molted while getting a good grip on the foam plug of the feeding hole on top, this was the first problematic molt I'd encountered with either of my two Idolos.

And thanks so much for your offer of supplying a date when my female is ready, I'll likely take you up on that. Have you successfully bred them yet? How great it would be to watch my own ooth of this sp. with a bunch of nymphs dangling from it, and I'd love an opportunity to photograph the very unique L1s!

 

[PIaf94]

I have not breed this species yet. I've kept other species of mantis before including other flowers like orchids
but had no expierience with idolos. Was thrown off at first by everyone saying they were difficult to keep. This is my
fist time keeping them and so far things have gotten pretty smoothly. I've heard that the first and last molts are the
most difficult for them and that's when they tend to die off, so I will be cautious in the
coming weeks. I've also heard that breeding them is tricky. So I won't know my outcome but I know a lot
of people who were able to breed and hatch idolo ooths.
If your able to get the shot of nymphs leaving the ooth I will applaud you sir.
What instar is your female in?

 

[Dark Raptor]

I especially like this one:
http://playingmantis.smugmug.com/PlayingMantis/i-M624HqR/A

IMO pictures are much better without that black background, but sometimes it is very difficult, without additional light source, to keep everything correctly exposed.

 

[papilio]

I have not breed this species yet. I've kept other species of mantis before including other flowers like orchids
but had no expierience with idolos. Was thrown off at first by everyone saying they were difficult to keep. This is my
fist time keeping them and so far things have gotten pretty smoothly. I've heard that the first and last molts are the
most difficult for them and that's when they tend to die off, so I will be cautious in the
coming weeks. I've also heard that breeding them is tricky. So I won't know my outcome but I know a lot
of people who were able to breed and hatch idolo ooths.
If your able to get the shot of nymphs leaving the ooth I will applaud you sir.
What instar is your female in?

Thanks a lot PIaf! Yeah, I too would love to get that "on film"! My female is L8, one to go!

I especially like this one:
http://playingmantis.smugmug.com/PlayingMantis/i-M624HqR/A

IMO pictures are much better without that black background, but sometimes it is very difficult, without additional light source, to keep everything correctly exposed.

Thanks Dark Raptor!

My own preference is to have dark backgrounds more often than not, as the compositions are a lot cleaner that way (especially with the high f/x which I've begun using since I got the FF camera, so the bokeh is not as strong), but I've got plenty of light to play with so I'll try to get more with backgrounds.