[genkisan]

Among the myriad things that keep me uber-busy, I am a private mantis enthusiast, and I collaborate with a research entomologist in the UK.
My main role in this collaboration is to act as liaison with collectors and govt agencies, in order to help him find sources of species that he is looking for.

In return, he sends me oothecae (eggcases) of various and sundry mantises, usually big and funky ones.

Theses pics are of Polyspilota aeruginosa, 4 to 4.5 inches as an adult. They hatched out in October, and have now mated and the females are laying.





It is a really fun hobby, and I sell my excess babies to an exotic pet dealer in my town.

And let me tell ya, there are few things cooler to watch when yer really baked than mantises hunting and eating.......

Thats really extremely cool, What an interesting original strange hobby to have.

Thank you for posting. Please tell us more.
How many mantises do you have, how long do they live for, what do you feed them? How long have you been doing this, what made you decide to collect them?

Please tell more about your fascinating hobby.

[Dr. D]

Nice Mantis' u got there, they are cool creatures do u watch the fems kill the males wen they mate??

[Sleepy]

whoa...

they are WAY cool, but if they were in my house, i'd have serious nightmares!!


the cats may eat a few, too.

[genkisan]

Originally Posted by Ronley

Thats really extremely cool, What an interesting original strange hobby to have.

Thank you for posting. Please tell us more.
How many mantises do you have, how long do they live for, what do you feed them? How long have you been doing this, what made you decide to collect them?

Please tell more about your fascinating hobby.

As fer how I got started and all that, well, I have been facinated with mantises since childhood. I started raising the ones we have around me locally about 5 years ago, but kinda on and off.

Then my son got a nature book wherein I found this image, which blew me away:



I searched the web trying to identify this magnificent insect, to no avail. In said search I found the website of a UK entomologist chap who specializes in mantises...so I sent him an email asking him if he could help ID this one. He did, and in his second letter started offering me ooths.

That was four years ago....since then we have become buddies, I call him once every 2 weeks or so to discuss my mantises, and the species search I am collaborating with him on.



I get oothecae (eggcases) from him, which contain anywhere from 40-300 wee mantis nymphs, depending on the species. After they hatch out, I separate them out into clear soda cups with lids. In the cut off base of a cup placed in the bottom of the holding cups I put a lab-bought fruit-fly medium, I use wingless fruit flies at this stage for feeding, as they need small prey.

Cup apart:


Cup together:



All the cups then go on my handy-dandy postcard rack, which has space for 156 cups:



And here is wot they look like when they are babies:


Once they git too big fer the cups, they git transfered to larger containers, pic of which I will put up in another post if anyone is interested.
Once in the large containers, they move on to mealworms and superworms as a food source. I put lots of powdrered bee pollen in the medium/food of the mealworms and superworms, so they are gut-loaded with really good food when the mantis eats 'em.

From the present batch I have 5 breeding females and one male, having lost a bunch and sold some as well.

Mantises will live from one to three years, depending on the species and whether you breed them or not.

[genkisan]

I dunno if anyone has looked at this thread anytime recently, but I did notice when lookin at it that all the pics are gone, due to the fact they were linked from my og gallery.... I will try to post some new ones as I get 'em...I have some nifty ooths at the moment.....

[mmm420socal]

Yah man, please post...Ive always like Mantis' and Walking Sticks as well.


M

[sMack-CFS!]

Glad to see you made it over here also genk, you are THE MAN..

I cant see the pics though.. is it some kind of wild ass variety that your dude sent ya? I remember some of those pics on OG, and all I remember thinking was holy hell I didnt know mantises came in so many sick varieties.

[Verite]

Funny, without the pics I got all the way to the bottom of this thing thinking I read/scanned it as Manatees. Im still laughing as I think about him breeding them.

Please post some more pics genkisan, i love Mantids.

On a side note... exit tangent left.

https://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/picko...dmtinsect.html

https://diseyes.lycaeum.org/fresh/mantis.htm