Frogs, Bugs, I love em all

EDs Fly Meat · #1 (**permalink**) 02-07-2006, 08:28 PM

Playing around with the camera. In the Pacific Northwest there just happens to be a really nice guy named Deshawn who is very talented with mantis species. Here is the Devil Flower Mantis.

Very, very small. This is a 3rd stage instar.

I must have tried 20 crickets before it decided to eat one. It did but not before first letting it go. When it came back a minute later. It grabbed it again.

I hope you enjoy these.
Dave[/url]

OneTwentySix · #2 (**permalink**) 02-07-2006, 10:15 PM

Those are very nice pictures.

Even though most people think of inverts as "frog food" or something similar, they really have an awesomeness of their own.

themann42 · #3 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 01:35 AM

wow he's really awesome. great photos.

i caught a regular green mantis by my house over the summer. i kept him for a few weeks feeding him flies. he would NEVER stop eating. he'd eat 15 flies a day when i had that many. perhaps he was stuffing himself because food isn't that readily caught in the wild?

after i caught him i ended up reading a lot about them on the net. there are sooo many different kinds that are so neat, i wish i could start collecting them along w/my frogs! watching them eat is awesome. since AZDR A has started offering flight house flies, maybe i'll catch another one this summer since i won't have to go out and catch the flies.

apparently a lot of people, though not as common in the US, keep mantis as free roaming house pets. just have a cluster of plants in the corner of room by the sun and they usually stay around.

Ed · #4 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 01:48 AM

Years ago I had Hymenopus coronatus (Malaysian Orchid Mantis). I would like to work with that species again sometime.

Ed

kyle1745 · #5 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 02:34 AM

WOW wild looking.

themann42 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 02:37 AM

how'd you get your hands on that? is there any sort of a market for mantis or do you have to live in an area where they live to catch them?

EDs Fly Meat · #7 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 03:43 AM

These are Deshawn's not mine. But you can pick some up at mantiskingdom.com And tell them ED's Fly Meat sent ya.
Dave

themann42 · #8 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 04:15 AM

thanks for the site, they are really neat! i'd pick a couple up but i'm just too busy right now. i really want some though and plan to buy some in the future. i really like this one, and for the price, you can't go wrong:

Auhsoj27 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 07:19 AM

I thought I heard on the discovery channel that mantises have very short lives... So I would think that if you can't successfully bread them, you'll be replacing your stock over and over fairly regularly... Is this not right?

Ed · #10 (**permalink**) 02-08-2006, 03:06 PM

There are guys on petbugs.com that sell cb and wc mantids as well.

The life span depends on the species, and the temperature at which they are kept. But yes it is usually about a year and you do need to breed them to replace your stock. This is hard to do from one pair as the males are programmed to mature faster than the females and can die from old age before the female becomes mature. Typically you need to keep the males cooler and the females warmer to get around this problem.

Ed