Cool bug.

[old pudd fisher]

The FNN has been a bit slow these days so I thought I would share a photo of a Praying Mantis I found in my backyard. This guy was the biggest I have ever seen, was a good 4 inches or more long. Sorry that its not a fish picture but its the best I can do for now and thought it was kind of cool. 46399

[TUNAVIC]

Yeah those are some cool bugs,insects,kinda creepy though!

Cya Tuna Vic

[old pudd fisher]

Thanks Vic Just kind of bored today.

[DarkShadow]

I wonder if you can keep one as a pet.

What would you feed it?

[redondo todd]

Once on a desert outing we found a mantis and a scorpion ,put them into a empty quart Gatorade bottle (back in the day when they were glass) and the mantis proceeded to dismember the scorpion and have him for lunch It only took a few minutes , we thought the scorpion would be the victor , Redondo Todd.

[DockRat]

Haven't seen one in years OPF.
DR

[old pudd fisher]

Haven't seen one in years OPF.
DR
Haven't seen one of these for years for some reason.46403

[DockRat]

Plenty of them snails in my yard.

[smokehound]

Looks like iris oratoria, the mediterranean mantid. very common in our deserts, they love hot dry areas.

Mantids make good pets but only live for a year

[DarkShadow]

Mantids make good pets but only live for a year

Hmm...so I can't get too attached to them.

Do they also have a life expectancy of a year in the wild as well?

(I have an Exo Terra terrarium that has been For Rent for the past year and a half, and it needs a new occupant)

[hookdfisherman]

.



Hmm...so I can't get too attached to them.

Do they also have a life expectancy of a year in the wild as well?

(I have an Exo Terra terrarium that has been For Rent for the past year and a half, and it needs a new occupant)



i kept one once. it did well for a bit. i fed it store bought crickets.

it was cool, that mantis would tear the crickets apart and chow down, it was brutal (but interesting).

then i did a little research on the net. it said not to feed it store bought crickets. maybe something they feed them or coat them with??

not too sure, it was a while ago.


sure enough, my healthy, cricket gorging, mantis croaked.

i was bummed.

RIP Reggie :Crying:


if you do want to keep one, do the research. it'll payoff in the long run.



.

[smokehound]

All mantids only live for around a year with adequate care, give or take a few months, and that's in captivity. Crickets are not a good food source, as they often contain fungi or parasites that kill mantids.

Males often die after mating, regardless of whether or not the female kills him.

Here's something cool I collected back in april from the North Algodones Wilderness:

Daihinibaenetes, a genus of sand-treader camel crickets that inhabit dunes. This particular specimen is likely an un-described species, as there are only three species listed in literature, and one of them, D giganteus, might not even be a member of this genus. After her eggs hatch and i raise some nymphs to adulthood and get a culture going, I'll send specimens to be researched.

They're predatory camel crickets, and solitary by nature, fiercely cannibalistic, an oddity amongst rhaphidophoridae, which are almost entirely friendly towards one another. They're in the sub-family Ceuthophilinae, which includes the common genus Ceuthophilus, which is found here in coastal socal.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c177/smokehound/11329905_839550356139261_6873540168330263604_n.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c177/smokehound/DaihiniPREY.png

Males reach a larger size.. they often attain twice the size of females, which makes me very curious to see how huge the males will get!

Compare to this Ceuthophilus californianus i had earlier this year:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c177/smokehound/10009856_747563175337980_1042672150420756456_n.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c177/smokehound/1622100_747575902003374_4998717506458958942_n.jpg

I also collected another genus of Sand-treaders from the same region, Macrobaenetes algodonensis, unfortunately, none of them survived. They virtually all died after two days..

Here's a female:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c177/smokehound/Malgodonensis.jpg

[Stormcrow]

I wonder if you can keep one as a pet.

What would you feed it?


I keep two in my classroom. I think they are almost two years old. I started with fruit flies and then moved to small crickets from the pet store. Smokehound says they only live a year but I know I have had these since the spring before last. Maybe they are getting up there in age.

[smokehound]

I keep two in my classroom. They are over almost two years old. Small crickets from the pet store is what I feed them. Species? Two years isn't unheard of, but not common. My guess is you have an exotic genus like Tenodera