New Mantis

[Normski2020uk]

Hi all, just recived my first mantis, and i have to say I'm impressd. I think its an African flower mantis. I'm a Scorp man my self, but i have to admit scorp duds, I'm being pulld away from scorps to Mantisis. They are fasinating, i saw it hunt last night it spent 3 hours tracking, and matching its prays movment bit by bit, unil he was close enough to get it. You can see them looking around and weighing up the situation. Its great.
Does anyone have any hints n tips. Also anyone know how you sex them??

 

[Waspman]

They're very cool insects! I can't get over how their head can look around and that they clean themselves like cats.

As for sexing, generally, the female is a bit heavier than the male. The male is smaller and more slender in size. Not sure if that applies to this species, but it does for more common ones.

 

[stonemantis]

Hi all, just recived my first mantis, and i have to say I'm impressd. I think its an African flower mantis. I'm a Scorp man my self, but i have to admit scorp duds, I'm being pulld away from scorps to Mantisis. They are fasinating, i saw it hunt last night it spent 3 hours tracking, and matching its prays movment bit by bit, unil he was close enough to get it. You can see them looking around and weighing up the situation. Its great.
Does anyone have any hints n tips. Also anyone know how you sex them??

As Waspman says they are cool insects and the females are bulkier than the males and have larger abdomens.

Also the males are more likely to take off flying and are more high strung than females. Females glide more than fly and are more docile.

 

[duente]

i found some info here
http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/bugclub/mantids.html
"Sexing mantids is difficult when they are small but fairly easy when adult, eight segments can be counted on the underside of the abdomen of a male and six on that of the female (in some species the end segments are difficult to see and only seven or five may be counted)."

mantids are my personal favourite insects i luvvvv them please post some pics!

 

[aggie08]

Very cool indeed, I'm keeping an open eye to see if I can find one outside somewhere. I heard from a friend that a mantis grabbed her finger and the spines went through her fingernail! Basically, if that thing gets an insect, it's a goner. Very cool.

 

[duente]

odd,all the mantids i've seen were totaly docile.they would sit on my hand and just look around with their cool little eyes or the way they "offer" their front legs to climb to your hand,soo cute.do watch the discovery channel's documentary on them "Alien Insect Praying Mantis" if you are a fan,you can easily find it in p2p etc.among others it shows larger mantids kill and eat hummingbirds,mice and small corn snakes...awesome

 

[Normski2020uk]

My mantid is not aggressive, but will put on a display if he feels threatend, and strickes out with his front legs/claws, and his only tiney, cant wait till his adult. I have him in a 30x20x24 bug house, wih live plants in it. he just clings to the roof. hardly touches the plants. Is this normal?

 

[Alakdan]

My mantid is not aggressive, but will put on a display if he feels threatend, and strickes out with his front legs/claws, and his only tiney, cant wait till his adult. I have him in a 30x20x24 bug house, wih live plants in it. he just clings to the roof. hardly touches the plants. Is this normal?

Yes it is normal. I've kept a mantis from nymph last January to adulthood end of April. Too bad, I wasn't able to catch a male for it to mate. I will probably release it so that it can breed. I fed it fruitflies and spiders when it was small, then mealworms and crickets as it got bigger.

 

[mike89]

For the African flowers its really easy to sex them. You see the spines in the middle of the abdomen? There should be 5 for males and 4 for females. Its really easy to tell. Also is there a section for selling mantids on here ? Cuz i breed them. I have African Twig mantids, African Flower mantids, Ghost mantids and more to come =D.

Yes it is normal for them to just sit there. Some species like african twig mantids are aggresive and attack anything that moves even stuff 2x its size.

 

[Gigas]

Are african Flower mantids , target mantids>?

 

[mike89]

target mantids? um iunno but they have a 9 on their back. Yea i think its the same thing.

 

[RVS]

I was really into mantids at one time (back before tarantulas came along), but they require a bit more attention to care which kind of turned me off from them. It seems caring for 30 tarantulas is the equivalent of caring for 10 mantids.