It's Mantis Time!

this is a side blog so i can’t like or follow from it! please send me asks and I will reply to any conversational replies as well (as of now from my main bc im not getting the reply from sideblog functionality yet fsr) Thank you for enjoying my mantises! I also keep a beetle grub and some isopods + roaches but mantis hold my heart dear.

[mostlymantis]

Invertebrate Catalogue

(Current to 2/18/2024)

If there is no picture, I plan to update with a picture. Pictures are of my actual pets. These are my pets and are NOT FOR SALE. I do however, periodically have offspring of some of my pets available for sale. Bolded species are species I have a breeding group of.

This list is non-exhaustive, as I have some random leftover feeder insects and random isopods in some of my cultures as well.

My current sale availability, Terms of Service and In Search Of/Trade list is here

I am an amateur/hobby entomologist and invertebrate breeder, I do not have any university degrees in biology, my information may be wrong and should be taken with a grain of salt. I am dedicated to providing my animals with more than adequate care, and hope that I am doing so. However, I do not know everything and am still learning to care for some of these animals, especially those that are not commonly kept in captivity. If you find a grievous error in my care or identification, please send me an ask or message.

-

INSECTS

Mantidae (Praying Mantises):

Sphodromantis kersteni “Giant African"

Phyllocrania paradoxa "Ghost"

Hierodula Majuscula "Giant Australian"

Hierodula membranacea "Giant Asian"

Popa spurca "African Stick"

Creobroter apicalis "Yunnan Flower"

Blattodea (Cockroaches):

Gyna Lurida "Porcelain"

Blaptica dubia

Panchlora nivea “Green Banana”

Shelfordella lateralis - “Red Runner”

Other Insects:

Several Different Unidentified Springtail species

Alphitobius diaperinus “Buffalo Beetle”

Allomyrina dichotoma "Kabutomushi"

ARACHNIDS

Phiddipus Audax "Bold Jumping Spider"

Hapalopus sp. Columbia "Pumpkin Patch Tarantula"

Caribena Versicolor "Antilles Pinktoe Tarantula"

OTHER ARTHROPODS

Isopoda:

Porcellio Sp. aff laevis “Dairy Cow”

Porcellio scaber “Lemonade”

Cubaris sp. “Panda King”

Armadillo Officianalis "Sicily"

Armadillidium Vulgare "Japanese Magic Potion"

Porcellionides pruinosus “Party Mix”

[mostlymantis]

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - A simple, fun & creative way to capture, edit & share photos, videos & messages with friends & fa

I’m on instagram as mostlymantis as well!!!

[auckie]

[communist-hatsunemiku]

[virtualgirladvance]

You are a bug in bug hell but your spider torturer so fucking bad at their job that the devil himself has to grab you with his gay pitchfork and help them

[pelagodes]

European mantis or cat?

[fellowshipofthenoodles]

wiggles

[mostlymantis]

recent shots. feels fucked up that its already warm enough to take pics outside

[onenicebugperday]

Not many things get me genuinely angry but one of them is people who are knowingly keeping animals in sub-standard conditions and refuse to change them when given information about proper care.

Just because an animal can live in certain conditions doesn't mean that they should. And yes this goes for inverts too!!! If you can't afford an appropriate habitat and care or you don't want to bother with setting up a complicated enclosure, then don't keep that animal.

[onenicebugperday]

What's worse is the person that inspired this is a breeder/seller, and they're not only raising literally hundreds of inverts in bad conditions, they're also giving bad advice to new keepers.

Like "yeah sure you can keep an adult mantis in a deli cup its whole life! I do it all the time!"

And unfortunately no one gives a damn about invert welfare, so there isn't really anything I can do.

[revretch]

Okay, but emphasis on "adult" here, because there's absolutely a reason you keep juveniles in deli cups: 1.) because it's an easy way to make sure that the young mantis has proper levels of moisture (especially important during molting), 2.) to make sure that they don't hurt themselves falling from the ceiling, and 3.) because if you're feeding fruit flies, you want to make sure the baby can actually find and catch their food.

As the mantis grows, you scale the size of the cup up, going from dipping cup to big gulp. And...yes, some mantises stay small enough that you can actually keep them in a deli cup their entire lives, and they will have plenty of room. Ghost mantises, for instance. You can still decorate the cup and everything, the larger cups are about the same dimensions as the small terrarium you'd get anyway (4" x 4" around, just a few inches shorter). Remember, to avoid the mantis hurting themselves falling, you want the enclosure to be about three times the mantis's height. A ghost mantis is under 2" tall, the big cups are about 6"! (Also, the mantis's feet stick to plastic better than the glass in my experience.)

Also, for mantises, I don't think the enclosure is as important as it is for most inverts you'd keep--because I think you should regularly be letting them out. No amount of lovely fake flowers and greenery you put in there is going to change the fact that they're open air animals, and they want a breeze. (In fact, a breeze can be the difference between them eating and not eating, because they might not make a move on prey if they don't think the wind is blowing to cover their movements!)

It's not like you need to keep them entertained, either. Mantises are ambush predators. Once they hit a certain age, you just stick them on a plant and they'll stay there, in one place, for hours. Sometimes they'll wander, but rarely farther than the ceiling immediately above them. Keep them spaced out on their own plants, and you can let multiple out at a time without any trouble.

Tl;dr: Mantises aren't tarantulas, worry less about making nice houses for them and more about letting them out to play.

[jack-of-all-inverts]

I NEED THESE BUGS OUT OF MY HOUSE BY TUESDAY 👏

'CAUSE ON TUESDAY I'M HAVIN A POTLUCK 👏

AND I CAN'T HAVE PEOPLE COMING TO MY POTLUCK 👏

ASKING WHY THE HELL THERE'S TWO HUNDRED BUGS AGAINST THE WALL! 👏

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE QUESTIONS? 🤯

"Hey uh.... Why you have so many bugs?" 😐

HOW EMBARASSING! 😱

BUY MY BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGS🦋🪲🪳🦗🐜🦂🪰🐞🕷

➡️ Click to view my For Sale/Trade list

[revretch]

So, uh. Parthenogenesis (or, "virgin birth"--female animals having children without ever mating) is recorded in a few mantis species. But...apparently it exists in a few more, too.

See, I had Bo, a shield mantis (Rhombodera megaera), and I know for a fact that she never mated. So, when she made an ooth (egg sac), I assumed it was nonviable and put it in a little jar with rice to desiccate and preserve it.

Recently, though, I checked up on it...

Looking closely, you can see the raptorial claws and the long prothorax, plus the little flat flipped-up abdomen. There's nothing that could be but a baby praying mantis :|

So, then I thought about the other ooths I have. My ghost mantises (two females, Phantasma and Goria) laid tons of ooths all over their sticks, and again, never mated. And sure enough, when I look at one of them now...

See, this was a stick I kept out in the open. And when baby mantises come out of the ooth, they're initially these little larval things called pronymphs that they immediately molt from. On top of that, this is exactly the color and texture the mother had.

This looks like a pronymph shed. So, somewhere in my room, for a little while, there was probably a baby ghost mantis wandering around.

I have never heard of parthenogenesis in either of these species or any other members of their genuses. How common is this?!!

[onenicebugperday]

Monkey grasshoppers, family Eumastacidae

Photographed in Tatama National Park, Colombia

by Judy Gallagher

[apeshit]

hell fucking yes

[jack-of-all-inverts]

PSA: MANTIS FOOD

DO NOT FEED YOUR MANTISES RAW/COOKED MEAT, FRUIT, VEGGIES OR OTHER NON-FOOD OBJECTS.

They are obligate insectivores, and feeding them wrong food items can lead to health problems.

JUST BECAUSE A T. SINENSIS HAS BEEN RECORDED EATING A HUMMINGBIRD, DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN FEED YOUR MANTIS CHICKEN.

They will eat anything that you touch to their mandible, you included.

Please feed your pet praying mantises LIVE INSECTS, such as Roaches, Flies, Moths and Grasshoppers.

I personally avoid crickets as feeders as they have been linked to mysterious deaths and have been known to cause bacterial/viral infections.

Wild caught prey poses a risk of parasites, so please use captive bred, clean feeders.

This has been an invert keeper PSA.

~ Jack of all Invertebrates

[unhingedlesbear]

Something else abt cockroaches is that they can also hold ur hand

[mostlymantis]

the cutest little peeled guy in the world wtf

[mostlymantis]

lettuce and spinach: the salad brothers

[creepincrawl]

More pics of my pet mantis Daffodil on my miniature, but now she's an adult!

:O that me!

This time she really, really wanted to just climb up high lol. Makes sense because she spends like 90% of her time upside down.

Ma'am, please, the door is not for climbing.

(look at her antennae moving!)

Oh my goodness I can't bring you anywhere Daffodil!! They have printed paper menus you don't have to climb up close to look!!!

I gave her a juicy cricket for her time! Everyone say thank you Daffodil!

:I :o

[crevicedwelling]

cockroaches have always been a group I hold in high esteem among the insects, and I saw a lot of nice ones in Singapore & Malaysia this past summer.

first is the tiny Pseudophyllodromia laticeps, whose name means ‘broad-headed’ but really most of its head are huge eyes! unlike the rest of these cockroaches, which are nocturnal, these flit around in daylight like houseflies and are just as quick to take flight when approached.

I’m not fully sure what these next two are, perhaps blatellids.

Allacta is another pseudophyllodromiid and a very charming one, with delicate white markings on a shiny black background.

epilamprines are a lovely group of blaberid cockroaches that are diverse in the area; these three were Rhabdoblatta of three different species. the last one there was probably the prettiest roach I saw on the trip; sadly it was found dead on the path.

Pseudophorapsis nebulosa is a big epilamprine that tucks away its appendages and resembles a dead leaf during the day.

I’m not sure what these next two were, possibly more blaberids?

a male Pycnoscelus indicus was a nice sight—while very common, I’m only used to seeing female Pycnoscelus surinamensis, which descends directly from that species! several lineages of P. indicus independently developed the ability to clone themselves instead of mating; these female-only strains are together known as P. surinamensis.

the roach on the right is Ergaula pilosa, a cute burrowing cockroach (Corydiidae).

these two nonnative species need no introduction: Periplaneta australasiae and Periplaneta americana (Blattidae), two species that are big “pest” roaches worldwide. these two were just chilling in the forest, however.

blattids are a funny group since one bunch are all “pest roach-y” (the blattines above) but the rest are strictly outdoor species ranging from wildly colorful Australian forms to bumpy, ornate archiblattines like this Catara rugosicollis. I missed getting photos of another lovely species, Protagonista pertristis, which sprayed my hands with an eye-wateringly-powerful scent of oranges before making her escape into the leaf litter.

[jenfoundabug]

Gorgeous forktail (damselfly in genus Ischnura) in Northeastern Pennsylvania (US)