papilio's mantids

[fuzzyavics72]

You and my best friend got me into mantids. He has a ton right now. He told me not to feed my ghost crickets when it was too late. I was sooo upset. Apparently, our mantids aren't very hardy unless it comes to cold temps.

 

[papilio]

You and my best friend got me into mantids. He has a ton right now. He told me not to feed my ghost crickets when it was too late. I was sooo upset. Apparently, our mantids are very hardy unless it comes to cold temps.

It really is a shame ... even the pet store where I purchased the ghost said nothing about the risk of feeding crickets, and they are typically very knowledgeable of such things. That was my only mantis at the time, and I was so surprised when it had died to realize how attached I had become to it. That continues to be my experience, mantids feel more like true pets than my Ts ever have and it must be due to their uncannily human-like behavior. I still love Ts, but am so glad I discovered the amazing mantis ... it's just a shame that the mantis hobby has nothing remotely approaching the selection of wonderful species which we have with Ts!

 

[fuzzyavics72]

I love how drastically mantids change after molting and I LOVE how my ghost would pretend to be a leaf and move. Simulating wind blowing on leaves. I don't want many mantids because they don't live long. I got into walhbergi after I saw your juvie pics. So thank you

 

[papilio]

I love how drastically mantids change after molting and I LOVE how my ghost would pretend to be a leaf and move. Simulating wind blowing on leaves. I don't want many mantids because they don't live long. I got into walhbergi after I saw your juvie pics. So thank you

You're certainly more than welcome, it's largely in the hope that others will get to know the joy of mantids that I enjoy photographing them! I know that a year or less doesn't seem like muc when we're used to the amazing lifespans of our Ts, but mantids pack a lot of pleasure into their time with us.

 

[papilio]

I love how drastically mantids change after molting and I LOVE how my ghost would pretend to be a leaf and move. Simulating wind blowing on leaves. I don't want many mantids because they don't live long. I got into walhbergi after I saw your juvie pics. So thank you

You're certainly more than welcome, it's largely in the hope that others will get to know the joy of mantids that I enjoy photographing them! I know that a year or less doesn't seem like much when we're used to the amazing lifespans of our Ts, but mantids pack a lot of pleasure into their time with us.

 

[Biollantefan54]

With your amazing photos, I am sure more people are going to want to keep them, I know I do.

 

[papilio]

Thank you Biollantefan, very kind of you. I hope so!

 

[fuzzyavics72]

They're very intelligent for a bug. I only like the two sp. right now anyway.

 

[louise f]

Well hallo foxy lady. she is so nice, i love the idolomantis diabolica they are my favorite mantids. stunning photos as always.

 

[papilio]

Well hallo foxy lady. she is so nice, i love the idolomantis diabolica they are my favorite mantids. stunning photos as always.

Thank you!
Nice website Louise!!





All of my mantids have grown up and died, so I bought 10 new Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii nymphs, some of which are still L1 like this one ... just tiny black ants!
Shot at 3:1 with Canon MP-E 65mm macro. The last image is an older photo of an adult male for comparison.

 

[papilio]

I caught one of the wahlbergiis slipping out of its skin to L2, here are some photos of it before it turned black again.

The first is a scale shot, the second is the exuvia.

 

[papilio]

High time I updated this thread ... lots of new mantis photos to post!



Here is a Double Shield mantis which I shot while experimenting with Wide Angle macro. I used a Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 Pro FX which I had received for a week from lensrentals.com. A 10mm extension ring gave the lens macro capability.

Though the effect worked nicely, as an f/2.8 Full Frame lens there's so much glass sticking out in front that I could only go down to about 20mm focal length before the surface of the front lens element itself came into focus at the hyperfocal setting. I'd guess that a lens of ~f/4.5 would allow closer focusing, and I may try the Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 III next, using their close focus helicoid adapter. This very small lens should also cause less difficulty in getting illumination to the lower parts of the subject, which will in many cases be practically touching the front element. But with this rangefinder lens I'd lose the auto aperture control which is so important for easier macro work, I'd have make do with stop-down shooting ... aside from this making the subject very dark in the viewfinder (this is compensated by the EVF on my camera), determining critical focus at f/16 is very iffy compared to focusing with a lens wide open.



Pnigomantis medioconstricta












Some early experiments,








A red color form Double Shield walking on the front surface of the lens.


The same specimen shot with a normal macro lens,






And a couple of close-ups.










Here's the bulbous Tokina 16-28mm.




Thanks for looking!

 

[Biollantefan54]

WOW!!! Those are just beautiful pictures! Just amazing!!

 

[papilio]

WOW!!! Those are just beautiful pictures! Just amazing!!

Thanks very much Josh! :worship:

 

[papilio]

Here are some images of the way too cute Hestiasula major, Giant boxer mantis, shown from L1 to L4.
At L1 it's BL is around 0.2 inches, while in the later shots at L4 it's about 0.5 inches.


L1














L2












L3












L4














Here's a short video taken when the mantis was L2.

[video=youtube;kGjT6cwHJxE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGjT6cwHJxE[/video]

 

[Philth]

I want a boxer mantis now, so cool.

Later, Tom

 

[papilio]

I want a boxer mantis now, so cool.

Later, Tom

Yeah, they took me totally by surprise how amazing they are ... and I got five of them from Precarious for just 7 bucks each!

 

[viper69]

Yeah, they took me totally by surprise how amazing they are ... and I got five of them from Precarious for just 7 bucks each!

Man, all this Papilio guy does is take pics of mantids! Try taking pics of Ts for a change! [emoji13][emoji13][emoji13][emoji13]

I think your recent mantid pics are excellent, some of your best mantids - nice colors!

 

[Tfisher]

::

 

[papilio]

Man, all this Papilio guy does is take pics of mantids! Try taking pics of Ts for a change! [emoji13][emoji13][emoji13][emoji13]

Hehe, yeah Chris I'll get around to it one of these days! My T collection had seriously dwindled and I was tired of just shooting the same old spiders for the thousandth time. But things are hopefully on the rebound, I just received some very nice slings from Chad. Gotta say though, Tom's exotic trues have really captured my fancy!!

I think your recent mantid pics are excellent, some of your best mantids - nice colors!

Thanks for the compliment, means a lot!
So have you picked up your new eye yet? I owe you a lot, I'm completely in love with my Sony. :biggrin: Now, just have to figure out how in the world I can afford their new a7R II !! I admit that I miss the res of the D800E.

::

Thank you very much Tfisher!




The Boxers are due for another photo shoot, they grow so fast! I had imagined that they'd lose their cuteness as they got bigger, but no ... same adorable behavior, just easier to see now! But I figure after the last post people are tired of them, so here are a couple of others for now ...


The first is a mature male Creobroter pictipennis which I need to pair with his female very soon. Not worth much, but still really cool mantids ... and I need the practice!

















And here's a sub-adult female Decimiana bolivari which I was babysitting for my friend Tammy.