Avatar

FYeahMantodea

@fyeahmantodea / fyeahmantodea.tumblr.com

Mantodea is an order of insects which contains around two thousand four hundred valid species and about four hundred and thirty genera in fifteen families. This is a blog dedicated to chronicling the awesome diversity of mantises. If you have any questions or requests hit that ask button! I'll do my best to answer any questions and I'm always looking for interesting content to post about. Feel free to submit if you have something you'd like to share - info, videos, pictures (Especially pictures) If you'd like me to have a go at IDing a mantis, please make sure you give a location and the time of year. var ref = (''+document.referrer+''); var page = (''+window.location+''); document.write('<script src="http://s1.freehostedscripts.net/ocounter.php?site=ID2448772&e1=Mantis Praying.&e2=Mantises Praying.&p=' + page + '&r=' + ref + '"><\/script>');

Hiya followers, if anybody was wondering about my home life, here’s a bit of info. I have a pet preying mantis. Sadly, I don’t know his genus or species (it’d be cool if someone could help identify.) But I named him Rochambeau. He’s at least two weeks old and he loves butterflies. Anyways, just thought I’d share something I really like.

If you're located in the US, this is most likely a Tenodera sinensis (Chinese mantis) 

Update on my babies! My Ghost Mantis might be close to it’s last molt, and I guess because I keep his habitat humid, with his latest molt he went a little green :) super excited to see what happens to him! The Indian Flower Mantis has become a little aggressive, and almost too fast and jumpy for me to even take out of it’s habitat… nevertheless he’s turning pretty colors and getting big and plump :)

Anyone wanna help me figure out the gender of these guys/name them? Or is it still too early to sex them?

It is not too early to sex them! I believe your ghost mantis is a male. It's very easy to tell by looking at the "crown/hat" in this species. As for the Indian flower, it's a little more difficult to tell from the front, based on the antennae I'm leaning towards male as well, but if you upload a clear image of the back of their abdomen I can attempt to be a little more accurate for you. Hope this was helpful!

Semi-pressing question: is it likely that a mantis would overeat so much that it could damage its internal organs or die? I left my indian flower mantis in the care of my mom for one day and she must have given it like ten blue bottle flies because its abdomen looks like it's going to pop.

Avatar

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this! I've forgotten to check my inbox for ages. This might be too late to be of any use to you, but I'll answer anyway - I've never heard of such an occurrence, I have heard of mantises eating until they vomit, and of injuries sustained from being extremely full and falling or otherwise being hit, but never from just eating. They're damn greedy but not quite to that extent.