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Native SoCal mantis

So these are our native species. I caught these on my deck when they were tiny babies, now all 3 have become adults and are ready to make babies :) I believe the are Stagmomantis limbata.

Here's the female
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And the male
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Love them!
 
Very cool. They also look like they could be S. Californica.
 
Very cool. They also look like they could be S. Californica.

I'm not sure which exact species they are, I've been looking at a ton of pictures and can't figure it out. They had dark markings allover when they were younger, but none of the mantids in photos had those same markings.
 
Nice! I love watching their grooming acrobatics.
 
Do mantis fly alot or rarely?
 
Males have full wings and can potentially fly. Most females also have full wings but are usually too heavy bottomed to actually get airbourne. None of my captive males have ever taken flight around the house though and are not scared of people. However wild mantids who are not used to people feeding them and handling them would likely be much more flighty. I released a bunch of chinese garden mantids a few years ago and just let them do their thing out amongst the Daturas and the one I found outside later in summer had full wings and did take flight when I tried to get him to climb on my hand and feed him a cricket.

I have a butterfly net with a long handle in my terrarium room just incase they ever do fly off though since they will go to the highest point and almost my rooms have 15 foot vaulted ceilings.
 
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None of my mantids will fly. These guys will try to fly a few inches in order to get from one of my hands to the other.
 
I've had captive male ghost mantids fly all over the house.

Males are definately the better fliers.

Also, last year I had some wild male Chinese mantids around....saw one flying towards me...like a small fighter jet. They're as big as a small bird when airborn!
 
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