38 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Beginning 6-9-2022

This is a new journal for some Stagmomantis carolina nymphs I am raising along with my five year old son. At the end of last October, he found a gravid female on a butterfly bush in my yard. We cared for her for a few weeks, keeping her in an old AC outworld 1.0. She eventually laid an egg case, then promptly died.

Here she is:



I kept the egg case in an open top glass jar under a roof on my patio all winter. On Sunday, June 5th, nymphs finally started to hatch out of the egg case, which was very exciting for all of us! Luckily, I had prepared in advance by ordering a wingless fruit fly culture and preparing several containers. We are currently keeping two of the baby mantids, and I gave one to my insect loving coworker as well.



I'm going to crowdsource for names for these nymphs. Drop suggestions in the thread.

Edited by ANTdrew, June 5 2023 - 6:05 AM.

[bmb1bee]

Jade, Opal, etc. if you want some cool names for the nice translucent color of the nymphs.

Love the mantids btw, good luck with them!

[T.C.]

Becareful with the having dead prey in their enclosure. This species has been known to grab the dead and eat it if they have gone a while without eating. As well keep in mind their enclosure should be quite tall as they molt.

[ANTdrew]

Update 6-17-2022

 

After wading through the overwhelming number of name suggestions, we've narrowed it down to: Jade. The one we had on the patio was going to be named Opal, but it unfortunately died for some reason. Perhaps it got too hot.

 

We are misting Jade's AC outworld every day, and I cleaned it to remove any remaining dead insects. The mantis is eating fruit flies voraciously, and it had its first molt this morning, which was fun to watch while I ate my breakfast. It basically doubled in size since hatching, and I have a feeling it's a male. My son is really have a blast keeping this creature, which is the most important thing.

 

[bmb1bee]

Adorable! I’m glad it got a successful molt.

[ANTdrew]

Update 6-30-2022

 

Our Stagmomantis, Jade, continues to do great. These are very rewarding animals to keep! It is eating four or five wingless fruit flies a day. We've tried some larger flies and a tree cricket nymph, but I think it is still intimidated by them. The mantis had its second successful molt on Saturday, June 25th. It is almost one inch long now.

 

 My son also found what is likely to be one of Jade's siblings out in our yard the other day. Very cool to see!

Attached Images

• 

Edited by ANTdrew, June 30 2022 - 2:34 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Update 7-19-2022

Our Carolina mantis continues to thrive in its AC outworld setup. Since the last update, it had its third and fourth molt, so we can verify now that Jade is a male. As result, I'm calling him Jaden now.




He's becoming a skilled hunter, so we are feeding him larger prey now including moths from my blacklight and larval crickets from my yard. Mantis keeping is very rewarding! I hope to get a female somehow, so we can get another ootheca to repeat the process next year.

Edited by ANTdrew, July 19 2022 - 8:59 AM.

[ANTS_KL]

Mantis keeping is very rewarding! I hope to get a female somehow, so we can get another ootheca to repeat the process next year.

Definitely agree on this. I've kept some ant mimicking Odontomantis planiceps and they were a blast to raise!

[TennesseeAnts]

Adorable! My S. carolina male just molted yesterday, little dude's wings are growing out now. 

[ANTdrew]

Update 8-12-2022

 

Baby Jaden is not really a baby anymore. He's due for his final molt any day now, and his wing pads are starting to puff up. He is taking much larger prey now, so I have been feeding him store bought crickets, moths from my blacklight, and any flies we can catch. I'm glad he survived our two week trip. My brother did a good job of checking in on him. Keeping mantises is so much easier than keeping ants.

 

[ZTYguy]

Such a cutie! They seem to be a lot easier. It’s like my tarantulas. A good meal a week and they are happy

[ANTdrew]

Welp, came home to find Jaden laying on his side. He hadn’t been eating much and was late to molt. I have no clue what went wrong, but it’s pretty sad.

[bmb1bee]

Welp, came home to find Jaden laying on his side. He hadn’t been eating much and was late to molt. I have no clue what went wrong, but it’s pretty sad.

That's quite unfortunate, I had a Stagmomantis named Mungbean die close to her final molt too. I enjoyed watching Jaden grow though, rest in peace... 

[acorns]

That's really sad, I'm sorry. I hope your son isn't taking it too hard.

[ANTdrew]

Update 10/11/2022

 

I had so much fun raising our Stagmomantis carolina this summer that I've been itching to try my hand at mantis keeping once again. Ant season is winding to a close, but I figured why not try a tropical mantis species this time? After doing some research, I chose to order a ghost mantis, Phyllocrania paradoxa, from USmantis.com. This species is supposed be a very forgiving beginner species, but it also looks amazing with its outlandish dead leaf mimicry. Our L2 mantis arrived safe and sound last week, so I set it up in a small planted terrarium I made using a medium display case from Hobby Lobby. The mantis has settled right in and is voraciously devouring wingless fruit flies I've been raising. I truly hope this one will make it to adulthood for us. 

Please suggest any good names you can think of for the creature, but I'm not sure of its sex just yet. 

[ANTdrew]

Update 11-2-2022

 

Our new ghost mantis has been doing very well so far. It molted about two weeks ago and has been very hungry ever since. The little Drosophila melanogaster are too small for it to notice now, so I've had to get creative to keep it fed. I've gathered some geometer moths at my blacklight, but mostly I am catching various flies outside using a butterfly net and snap cap vials. The mantis is looking like a male, so I've named him Leif. 

 

[Ant-nig321]

Good name.I like the dead leaf body.

[ANTdrew]

Update 11-17-2022

 Leif had another successful molt on 11/15. I have been feeding him lots of flies, which I've been catching in my yard. Temperatures are really dropping now, though, so I went ahead and ordered some house fly pupae from joshsfrogs.com. I got a great idea for a fly trap on the mantid forum:

 

I baited it with some dead fiddler crabs from a lab at my school, and we caught a ridiculous amount of flies with this. I used an aspirator to remove individual flies that I can then put in the mantis' enclosure using the magnetic feeding port I put on the side. 

 

Here's a photo of Leif right after he molted. 

 

[Ant-nig321]

Wow i hope he continues to progress.

Edited by Ant-nig321, November 17 2022 - 11:17 AM.

[ANTdrew]

Update 1-12-2023

 

Lief is all grown up now! I woke up early today to find that he had successfully molted for the last time at some point in the evening. He came out massive and perfectly formed with big, beautiful wings. It's hard to imagine how such a big creature was fitting in that old skin! I've got the hang of feeding him in the winter now. Most of his diet has been house flies ordered from Josh's Frogs. I order the flies as pupae, and then keep them in the fridge once they turn into adults. Luckily, he is also taking piece of dubia roaches I stick on the end of a broom straw. I will probably need to order larger types of flies now that he is full sized. I may also consider getting him a mate, but I don't want to get overwhelmed with nymphs. The plants in his terrarium have really been thriving as well. Stay tuned.