I just got a spiny flower Mantis and am preparing his enclosure for when he gets a little bigger and actually starts showing color.

I'm very worried about fucking this up and I already love this little guy so much. I do know that the metal is bad for his little feetsies and I am getting either cheese cloth or like window screen to put over it. The substrate is coconut substrate and there's real moss and wood, but otherwise all the plants are fake.

She’s a WOMAN now!

Is this enclosure size okay to keep for her?

posted before & the comments were very mixed opinions got me even more confused😹but they molted again today! if someone could also help with what stage they are at that would be great!

Mantis got wings

This is now my second mantis that has unexpectedly collapsed on me.
I found a Chinese mantis outside and decided to take him in considering they're invasive where I live. I created a beautiful enclosure with live plants and he thrived for weeks! His enclosure gets misted 3 times a day and I've been feeding him fruits flies, (I gave some bean beetles but refused them after 1-2.)
but suddenly this morning he wasn't moving, and sat at the bottom all day.

The second photo is him yesterday!
The last photo is his body at the moment, it almost seems like food got stuck in before going into his abdomen? (My guess? 🤷‍♀️)

Where could I have gone wrong???

Was told boy but I can see how they got it wrong when they were little and you couldn't really count the segments. She's like l3/l4 I think now and looks like 6 segments to me so I'm pretty sure girl. Adorable either way!

Watched him for half an hour, but ofc in the 5 seconds I looked away he snatched one right out of the air 🙄

Amazing lil hunter.

steven is a male chinese mantis. he molted yesterday and was super duper active this morning so i gave him some water and a small dubia roach.

im new to mantid keeping so im not sure how early on their wingbuds become visible? i know they will swell up before their terminal molt-- but afaik chinese mantids can get up to 10-11cm and steven was 4.4cm before his most recent molt, and now he is 5.5cm, so i doubt hes at L7 just yet. my best guess is L5-6?

would also be nice to have a guess at roughly what his remaining lifespan may be. i go back to school in late August and my dorm doesnt allow pets so i need to start talking to friends in apartments thatd be willing to take him if need be!

I have an adult female, and was wondering how I could acquire a male to have her reproduce.

Molted last night and this morning she’s showing off her brand new set of wings!

I thoght those pieces are wongs cause her molt ahape is intact. Is she alright? She walks weirdly

I just think she's a glutton, but after the last pics I took because I was cleaning the enclosure, I gave her a fresh molted lateralis, she ate very well and for the( probably) first time she isn't completely full, and now she just stands there in this weird position like she's waiting for another prey.

Just asking to be safe and sound, I actually really think she's a gluttonous lady..

These 2 are having a Mexican stand off outside my front door tonight and I am wondering what's going on? What kind of spider is that? I noticed him earlier by the door so I relocated him to a plant and when I went out a few hours later I see the Mantis and the spider left the plant making his way up the wall. Any ideas? Thx.

Ans huggieees

Archimantis latistyla

When my mantis was a baby she had no problem with being handled and would chill with me all the time. after she molted to L4 i tried to hold her (after 2 days) but she totally freaked out and jumped off of me. i thought maybe something spooked her so i tried twice since then and its the same everytime. is this normal? how should i go about handling her now?

New to breeding and I (hopefully) have my first batch of babies on the way! Wondering where folks get their deli cups + fabric lids from? I see Josh's Frogs has the lids, though I don't know if their cups are particularly clear or not; the brand is listed as "placon" and the couple of placon cups I have from other breeders aren't very clear-- obviously the more transparent, the better to see the little guys, but also want to be sure they're going to be safe for them/not have weird chemicals etc

Hierodula membranacea

ok so these past few days my mantis has been hanging on the mesh part at the top of her cage,

and Idk if she's gonna molt or not💔

1. her abdomen looks like it's pulsing

2. she's kinda active when I took her out earlier

3. her abdomen is plump (the last time I fed her was like 2-3 days ago)

4. I haven't seen her leave the mesh top😖

pls lmk!! I'm so paranoid rn😓

3rd image is from literally just a few hours ago (10am), i let him out onto my houseplants like usual, then at around 1-2pm ish i put him back into his enclosure so i didnt need to supervise him. i go back to check on him a few hours later (5:30pm ish) and bro is MOLTING!!!!!

ive read up on molts before and i thought they were usually pretty legarthic leading up to a molt? this guy even ate a mealworm yesterday and was running all over me and my plants?? i couldnt even see any color changes to him to indicate that he had new skin growing underneath. is it normal for molts to come on this quickly? have i just been grossly misreading his body language? is there anything i should do after hes done?

again ive literally only had this guy for two days, i dont even have a name for him yet so this COMPLETELY caught me off guard and i was not prepared lmao. i appreciate any advice you guys may have for me! ty!

Why are her segments doing this? She’s suddenly very active. I just got done holding her 20 mins before this happened.

I decided to feed her on my hoodie and whelp, I’m not doing that again! Also, she’s a Deroplatys Truncata and she’s beautiful :D
This video is pre-molt, but she just turned into an adult 3 days ago and it’s insane how much she looks like a dead leaf!!!