My new hobby (image heavy)

[Myke]

hi Y'all. Most of you probably have no idea who I am but know that I have been here off and on for a veeeery very long time. Mostly in the art section. I just wanted to show you guys my new hobby. Raising and breeding exotic mantids! =) I already have a zoo at home with 14 reptiles 8 amphibians, 2 fish tanks and a whole buttload of feeder insects I raise, but funny enough the mantids are my favorites
here's some pix of my babies.
this is a threat pose of a Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii AKA spiny flower mantis. it's male and adult

sadly he died today but he lived a good long life. he died of old age
this is what happens when a mantis dies in my house

this is a threat pose of a femal Popa spurca AKA african twig mantis

this is a Phyllocrania paradoxa AKA ghost mantis female adult. the green ones are rare

this is another female ghost mantis threat posing

this is my brown ghost mating

this is the same brown ghost laying an ootheca (eggcase)

this is a Deroplatys lobata nymph AKA dead leaf mantis

this is a Sybilla pretiosa aka cryptic mantis nymph munching on a fly

this is a Blepharopsis mendica AKA thistle mantis nymph

this is an Idolomantis diabolica AKA Giant devil flower mantis these guys get huuuuge

this is a Hymenopus coronatus AKA orchid mantis nymph

this is the same orchid mantid shedding to adulthood

this is the same orchid mantis as an adult after shedding and her wings are open

this is a fertile Popa spurca ootheca (eggcase) should get around 20 to 50 babies out of it

any my ghost mantids when they were still subadult being goofy. these guys don't eat each other. they can live together.

I also own T. sinensis (chinese giant mantis), Metallyticus splendidus, Metallyticus violaceus (these guys don't have normalnames just look them up on google), Deroplatys dessicata (another type of dead leaf mantis), and a pair of Hypsiocorypha gracilis which apparently nobody owns in the us so yay for me. I just don't have pictures in hand for these guys. if interested google them. Except for the gracilis, that one is so rare even google shows you the wrong mantis.
hope you enjoyed my little show and tell. =)

 

[Rydian]

Reactions, in order.

• GAH BUGS EW EW EW
• Hey they look pretty cool.
• Wow, there's a wide variety.
• Holt crap how can you find them when they're standing still in sticks and stuff?

 

[The Catboy]

I am not going to lie, I want that collection.
They are so pretty!

 

[Bobbyloujo]

I'm curious... where the heck do you get rare praying mantids? Is there like a black market for praying mantids? The first one is freaking cool looking.

 

[jonesman99]

Pretty cool collection, but seeing as how I am afraid of bugs, I think I'll stick to Scyther and Scizor, lol.

 

[mrtofu]

deleted

 

[Alex221]

Can you take a picture of your Hypsiocorypha gracilis?

 

[Gahars]

Your army of man-eating insects personal zoo is really quite impressive.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

Of course the real question is "Have you injected yourself with mantis DNA yet? And if not, why not?"

 

[Myke]

• Holt crap how can you find them when they're standing still in sticks and stuff?

with a keen eye sometimes they hide really well. Especially the ghost mantids. thats how they got their name.

I'm curious... where the heck do you get rare praying mantids? Is there like a black market for praying mantids? The first one is freaking cool looking.

indeed there is a black market for them. Owning exotic mantises in the US is kind of a grey line in terms of legality. Most of the ones I have are captive bred here in the us which technically doesn't make them illegal. The illegal part is the importing of them from outside of the us. which still happens from time to time (and obviously they had to make it into the US before they were US bred). the feds have better things to do than bust exotic mantis owners. It's kind of a don't ask don't tell sort of thing. you are technically supposed to have a permit for them, but if you apply for it it's just like a flag to the feds saying hey look at me I have mantises! and they will come and squish all your bugs. They are considered a pest because they eat other insects. Importing them is illegal because they are afraid the same thing that happened with snakes in florida, will happen with mantids in the us. However if you release these mantids into the wild here, they won't survive for long because they are mostly tropical and require quite a large amount of humidity, and where it's really humid here in the US it's also too hot for them. they simply wouldn't survive other than a few species.

Can you take a picture of your Hypsiocorypha gracilis?

I will as soon as it gets lighter. it's 6 am and everyone is sleeping.

Of course the real question is "Have you injected yourself with mantis DNA yet? And if not, why not?"

hellllz yeahhhh! I now enjoy hanging upside down from the cieling, my arms have become raptorial like the mantis, and I stalk my prey. My girlfriend thinks it's creepy, but last time we mated she almost bit my head off. Watch out for her! I think she might have done a little injection herself.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news.
Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely.
Good news is we've got a much better test for you: fighting an army of tattooed mantis men.
Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line.
You'll know when the test starts.

 

[Ubuntuの刀]

Reactions in order:

WTF?
Whoa more bugs!
Is this photoshopped? D:
OMG MORE BUGS!
I think this guy is obsessed with bugs to the fullest extent

 

[Myke]

I am definitely obsessed with Mantids. I do like other bugs too but mostly my mantises. I don't really collect other bugs unless you consider my feeder roach bins where I breed them for food for my reptiles, as part of my collection.
Bring on the rifle men! I will take them all down by myself! As soon as my Girl Lays an ootheca, there will be more of us! bring it!

 

[Myke]

mantis frankenhouse I just built. cheap.

 

[Myke]

woohoooo! My new species have arrived!
Metallyticus splendidus. Ultra rare, from the island of Sumatra

Metallyticus violaceus, just as rare, still from the island of sumatra

AAAAnd a Hypsiocorypha gracillis. Even less is known about these guys. New species, even to europe which is huge in the mantis hobby. In all of the US I'm the only owner of these. I intend to mate them and hopefully spread them in the hobby here in the us
sorry for the crappy pic. I'll try to get a better one soon. I was just excited to get them so I snapped a quick one

 

[Densetsu]

My girlfriend thinks it's creepy, but last time we mated she almost bit my head off. Watch out for her!

Yikes, she's not supposed to take head!

Sorry, bad joke

AAAAnd a Hypsiocorypha gracillis. Even less is known about these guys. New species, even to europe which is huge in the mantis hobby. In all of the US I'm the only owner of these. I intend to mate them and hopefully spread them in the hobby here in the us

Very fascinating. The fact that even Google doesn't even have a picture of it is pretty awesome. How do you know that you're the only one in the US with one of these? It's not that I don't believe you, but I'm just curious as to how you would go about finding out. If you really are the only US owner of H. gracilis, I hope you'll do the responsible thing.

Spoiler

Mate them until it breaks our ecosystem, then unleash them upon "the man"

Oh, and more high-res pics of them, please! We need to get these to show up in Google!

 

[Lanlan]

I was doing some work for a lady once and I saw this little guy on her deck. I snapped a few pictures of him. I'm not a photographer at all but I love how this came out. And if it's a female I'm sorry.

 

[omgpwn666]

Insects are so amazing. When seeing them close up like this it makes me realize how weird Earth is. Nice pictures, and amazing collection!

 

[JsdMaNintendo]

This is wild to me. I used to think general insect collecting was just BS made up for TV and movie scenarios and crap, and they always made it look so.. Weird. I just thought that was how it was. But these are so amazing looking.... It's really opened my eyes.. People actually do this, and it's not a game. Looking at the insects amazes me. Seeing them up close like this, it's not like, "Oh, hey, it's a bug." It's more along the lines of, "Holy crap! That thing is a living creature!? o_o" Haha
Really good stuff.

 

[Myke]

densetsu, I plan on breeding them LOL but I don't encourage releasing them in the wild for that exact reason. I don't want to help ruin the ecosystem. (btw not a bad joke I collect them breed them, help the hobby out and once they die I bugpin them. I have a better pic of the hypsocorypha. I'll post it up in a second. I gotta upload it first. As for me knowing I'm the only, The mantis hobby in the US is very very VERY small. It's easy to connect with everyone on the upper tier farely quickly. Nobody has ever bred that species here in the US, not to mention nobody has ever imported them in the US...This is normally a europe only mantis. Not many people take their chances importing mantids because of the W&F Comes through and checks the box of if the FDA does it, they are just going to squish the bug there and then. So nobody really orders from europe if hardly at all. I took the chance, and I got lucky I guess =). She ate the male though in transit. The breeder decided to take the slowest shipping route and they took me 2 weeks to get here. I'm surprised most were still alive! one metallyticus dead and the male of the hypso. He's going to replace them. As far as I know I have also been told I'm the first to own them here in the US. I'm sure there is a chance that a few other people have or had them, but if they are serious about it they would be breeding them here, and nobody is which is a sure sign that nobody or better...only a few people in the us have them. I have also been informed by the european breeder that they haven't been in the US yet.


Lanlan, that's a gorgeous pregnant, very female, Stagmomantis Californica. Or california mantis. nice find =)

quick hypsocorypha snapshot still crappy but better than my previous. I only have a cameraphone.