Victory!

[swords]

Well it took two days and finally some prodding to get the mature male Ghost Mantis to climb on a new branch to be moved. I wanted to let him do it himself but who knows when that would happen, if ever... So he's in the new vivarium - can you find him?




I haven't seen him from behind since his molt, look at the big "X" someone spray painted on his back!

[Clue]

I saw him in the first picture, blinked, then I lost him.



It's really amazing how well camouflaged these are!




What species are these again?

[mass]

I couldn't find him, blinked, then saw him.. I WANT ONE!

[limeslide]

It's really amazing how well camouflaged these are!

I couldn't see the thing until I saw closeups. XD

[swords]

Phyllocrania paradoxa or "Ghost Mantis" for short. I'm so relieved to get him moved, now if he sits in one spot all day it's his own fault not cos his terrarium is too short. I just can't believe how much bigger he is since his last molt, I will have new vivariums setup for the other two by the time they mature in 2-4 weeks depending upon the weather. Then I'll start filming the mantis porn a few weeks after that! Bow chika wah wah... (bad disco music)

I successfully built one all glass nano-vivarium (8" L x 8" W x 12" H) with a sliding glass front last night, so I will take pics of the steps and post a DIY on my next build I do either tonight or tomorrow. I just wanted to concentrate on the build itself for the first one and not have to worry about taking pics ontop of everything else. You guys will like this project, it's freakin' easy and awesome!

[Sig]

I'm wondering how people were able to discover these guys in the first place! With camouflage that good, there must be some undiscovered right under biologist's noses!

[swords]

Mantids are good camo experts but you ought to do an online search for Native US Phasmids and Stick/leaf insects. There are a couple dozen species spread across the US & Canada who are very hard to locate in their habitat due to being nocturnal and very good and hiding in plain sight. I've only seen one in person out in the wild over 20 years ago. He was cruising across the sidewalk is the only reason I happened to notice this twig out talking a stroll. I was a young kid and I let him go because I had no idea what sort of food they ate.

We have 2 species native to my area, likely the same species that are in my area would be in your area. I'm making it a quest for this summer to try and locate a pair of each in my woods. Go out at dusk/dark and have a flashlight covered in red film look at their food plants: oaks, brambles (thorny bushes), hawthornes, tall grasses, etc. and you might find some. Whatever species of plant you find them on that's what you'll have to feed them if you bring them home with you. They often won't accept substitute plants and would rather starve to death than eat something else according to what I've read. A few native US species have a defensive spray so look up the phasmids of your state and read about them before you go out looking - you might need goggles! LOL

[Ozzy]

I looked and looked but never saw it. All I saw was just a bunch of dried up leaves. Maybe if you clean all the dead leaves out people can see it.

[swords]

Ozzy here's a fast key to the anatomy that I made using a pic of the immature female green ghost mantid, will work out a better key later:

[Ozzy]

Now there is a green leaf in the way. I guess sarcasm doesn't really come through written words.