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Found a pic of the mantid I have as adults:<P><img src="http://www.meos.ch/terra-typica/bericht ... .jpg"><P>I can't wait!<P>-Shannon

Yes, everyone THINKS Mantises are cool, that is, until they build a death ray and try to kill Space Ghost...
.....
Um, I don't think that's quite right, is it?<P>------------------
- Josh Nickerson
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Heya folks - I got a new pet this weekend, and I hadda share. I was looking for something I could keep at my desk at work, and since my pythons failed to provide any baby pythons this year for the task, I was peeking at the petstore and found...THIS!<P><img src="http://www.realmofinverts.com/images/af ... pg"><P>Now, considering I used to catch plain old Carolina mantids as a kid and keep em in a jar, I just couldn't pass it up when I saw this little guy in the petstore. The one in the picture isn't mine, but it's pretty close. I have him in a little tank on my desk. If I can get ahold of the department's digital camera, I'll take a picture and post it here. Ain't it neat?<P>Oh, and for you zoology-minded folks out there, its an African Flower Mantid, <I>Pseudocreobroter Occellata</I>. I almost bought a Chinese Gar this weekend, too...but I think I have enough pets that require live food for the moment. @_@<P>-Shannon<p>[This message has been edited by jackiesfridge (edited 07-16-2001).]

wow! freaky...i can honestly say i've never known someone who had another one of <I>those</I>!
how big is he?

Well, with the abdomen curled up like in the picture, he's about an inch long; with the abdomen extended, call it an inch and a half. If everything works out and he grows as he should, I guess I can expect 3-4 inches. The tail straightens out with their final juvenile molt (they shed their skins every 3-8 days, I guess), and then it gets wings which have some funky patterns on them (this is all nifty stuff I've learned since the initial post). I'll DEFINATELY find some way to post pictures. Apologies to all you "bugs-me-no-likey" people out there, but I just think this is way too cool. Besides, it eats all kinds of other insects and isn't venemous, so it's a good insect, right? Right. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.g ... -Shannon<p>[This message has been edited by jackiesfridge (edited 07-16-2001).]

Can't argue w/ that logic. Bugs that eat other bugs are fine by me, as long as they don't try to eat *me* along the way <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif"><P>Praying manti (mantises?) are also quite cool. I didn't know they had wings, tho'. Is that one male or female? Or can you tell, yet?<P>------------------------------------------- <A HREF="http://64.224.241.48/lyrics/colorblind.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://64.224.241.48/lyrics/colorblind.htm</A>

Thing is, if you got a female, you probably won't be able to find anyone with a male who will be willing to mate theirs with you.<P>Male Mantises only get to have sex once.<P>Then Mrs. Mantis quite literally bites his head off. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/eek.gif"><P>And you thought relationships with human females were tough!<P>-Zodo
aka BUNNY!
Consummate Troublemaker

Praying (preying?) Mantises have always been my favorite kind of bug, ever since I learned about them when I was 11. Only insect that can look over it's own shoulder. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"><P>Once when I was 12 or 13, there was a HUGE mantis on my dad's car, about 5 inches long. I picked it up by it's thorax to get a look at her. (had to be a her, to be that big)<P>She reached back over her shoulders with both forelegs, the ones with the claws, and grabbed hold of my fingers. This startled me, so I let her go... She held on, and flipped down, then back up to land on my hand. Then she turned her head, and looked directly at my face, as if to say, "Look, but don't touch, buddy-boy!"<P>Then she cleaned an antenna, opened her wings, and flew away.<P>-Zodo
aka BUNNY!
Consummate Troublemaker

Colorblind: Some mantids (I learned yesterday that that's the proper plural <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">) have wings, and some don't - it varies from species to species. The African Flower Mantid does, when mature.<P>Mantids are kind of funky - they don't have a caterpillar/grub form, like a lot of insects we're used to (butterflies, flies, bettles, etc). Instead, when a mantid egg hatches, you get...a teeny tiny mantid, called a nymph. Then they go through a series of moults as they grow, finally moulting into an adult complete with wings. Other insects that do this are grasshoppers, stick insects (which the mantids are most closely related), dragonflies & damselflies, and cockroaches, to name a few. Oh, and crickets, of which Popcorn (ok, so I named it) has already downed 6 since I last posted.<P>I can't tell if it's male or female until it moults into an adult, but at that point I guess it's pretty easy. Male mantis have 8 segments on their abdomen, while females only have six. If it is female, I'd be very interested in breeding it...but then I'd have to find a male, and in three years of frequenting the pet shops around her on a weekly basis, this is the ONLY time I've ever seen these for sale.<P>Zodo: they are, indeed, some of the coolest insects out there. I've loved them since I was younger, and would catch the occasional one in my mom's garden. I hadn't seen any live ones for about 15 years prior to this, but now that I have Popcorn, my interest is rekindled. Did you know that you can <A HREF="http://homeharvest.com/beneins.htm" TARGET=_blank>order mantis ootheca (egg cases)</A> from gardening catalogs and biological supply houses, usually sold as a natural pest control alternative? They're quite cheap, and can hatch into <I>hundreds</I> of the little beasties! 400-600 for $10.95 from the link I listed above, but I think I might have missed the window of opportunity for this year, darnit. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif"> These are just the <A HREF="http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomolo ... aymant.gif" TARGET=_blank>regular mantids</A>, tho - not the funky kind like I have. Still, even standard mantids are very cool.<P>And as far as preying or praying - personal preference. Either one is correct. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"><P>-Shannon

Female mantisses don't always eat their hubbies..
rarely even I think..<P>Besides, what goes for people goes for mantisses as well: always practise safe sex (or none)