Adult Spiny Flower Mantid

[swords]

Woke up to an adult Spiny Flower Mantid today

The next two shots had to be through the foggy tank sides

I haven't yet had time to inspect it yet to see if it's a male or female, off the bat I'm guessing it's a male.

 

[Clue]

A predator dressed up in frilly lace.

 

[larry]

How are your mantids turning into adults so fast, you must be acquiring good sized specimens. Mine are nowhere near adulthood.

 

[mass]

omg I want one! Or ten..

 

[swords]

How are your mantids turning into adults so fast, you must be acquiring good sized specimens.

I can't afford good sized specimens I just have magic vivariums! LOL

Truly, I think it's warm the temps 75-82*F and the fact I feed them 1-3 flies or small crickets everyday. People say to let them go hungry every other day and I do skip a meal if I'm really tired on a work day and I've gotta wake up and run or they look like they're going to molt I'll hold off feeding a certain one. Sometimes I can't tell and they surprise me with an empty twin in the morning plus a couple uneaten flies buzzing around but generally they get something eat everyday. If your Mantids ever avoid eating and have big abdomen several days in a row take out their food/hold off feeding they will be molting soon.

Here was the first meal of one of the spiny flowers in my custody. Pretty much dwarfed by the fly he/she is eating. I think Peter's website said they were L2 or L3 when I ordered them. I don't remember how old Craig said the Ghosts were but they each molted 4 times IIRC.

Here's a shot of one of the Spiny Flowers that I took when I was unpacking them.

The spiny flowers arrived May 10th IIRC, I didn't write it down but I know I got the Ghosts on April 24th cos it took a week to coordinate the meet so I could buy them in person instead of having them shipped. I had the baby spinys shipped and all 3 arrived just fine so I'm not fearful of receiving them via priority mail now, at least in decent weather.