Finally found an orange morph P audax

[Tortuga]

Got home from work just now, and to my surprise I found this little beauty scampering across my hood (bonnet) of my truck.

I’ve been wanting to find one for awhile now, but now that I’ve found one...I’m debating on releasing it in my garden. In the hopes that this little one might proliferate.
Right now shes just chillin in a nook on some cork bark and grooming. I’m leaning towards release, what do ya’ll think? I already keep P regius and P audax (white).

 

[omni]

it certainly would be happy in your garden munching on aphids and whatnot, but it might not find a mate if you've never seen them in that space

 

[pannaking22]

Congrats on the nice find. It's hard to say whether you'd get more orange or not though depending on the others that are in your garden (though I admit I'm not fully sure how the genetics work here).

 

[Tortuga]

I've decided to keep this little one, temporarily at least. She's already spun a hamock in her nook and settled in lol, making this decision even easier. I do see males in my garden from time to time, but not till later in the year. Depending on which type of male presents itself I'm going to see if I can pair her, if she hasn't mated already that is (that would be ideal). I'll be curious to see how the genetics work if I'm successful, I'll update this thread if I am. My end goal is to potentially have a population of orange morph P audax in my back yard!

 

[ReignofInvertebrates]

I have to say I’m not well versed in genetics, but if you see white P. audax a lot in your area it couldn’t hurt to try to find a male for her if she hasn’t already mated with one. I tend to find them more often in the fall as well, but I imagine the females can live for a good while.

 

[mantisfan101]

I found one just like this, but can’t tell if it’s an adult yet; is yours an adult female?

 

[Tortuga]

I found one just like this, but can’t tell if it’s an adult yet; is yours an adult female?

Initially I though it was a mature female, but now I'm not 100%, fairly certain its not full grown though. Wish I could say I'll post another picture, but I scratched the crap out my camera lens today and all my pics are now blurry. And I need new glasses now too lol...I'm really having a rough go of it when it comes to optics. I may have to wait for another molt to see.

*edit* I shot this before i scratched my lens, male?? Sorry about the quality

 

[Tortuga]

Confirmed male this morning. He molted a few days ago and showed himself this morning before I went to work. So instead of work, which there really is nothing to do, I'm going to be researching pairing P. audax. Still on the fence about doing this, raising tiny slings can be tedious at best. But I'm also curious as to how the genetics of my little experiment are going to pan out.

Any feed back or shared experiences to supplement my research would be greatly appreciated.

*After some reading, I'm questioning if my timing is right to attempt an introduction. My female is old and notably slowing down. This new male is most likely sub adult and half the size of the female. I'm going to abut their enclosures and observe their behavior. I'm looking forward to this because I'll be off work for the next 4 days...hopefully only 4 days.

 

[Tortuga]

Hadn’t seen my female out over the past few days, but I could still see her sitting in the opening of her hammock. This morning when I checked on her I found she had died. Soon after I released the male.