some pics of my orchid mantis

[xanthoman]

hymenopus coronatus, of my original 7, i have 4 remaining, not the easiest mantis to keep (as i am finding out), this is my first try. the one pictured is believed to be male, i do have a female but she is slow to progress. will gladly send more pics to anyone that request them .

 

[lisa h]

Beautiful! I saw these last October at our local reptile show. Almost picked one up, but decided I didn't need another "thing" in my house.

 

[dodolah]

hymenopus coronatus, of my original 7, i have 4 remaining, not the easiest mantis to keep (as i am finding out), this is my first try. the one pictured is believed to be male, i do have a female but she is slow to progress. will gladly send more pics to anyone that request them .

If you are planning to breed, it is advisable to slow down the male's growth rate by subjecting him to a lower temperature and giving him less food. Otherwise, by the time your female is sexually mature, your male is already far too old.

 

[nightcrawler]

What do you keep them in? Can I see some pics of the setup?
Nice lookin bugs.

 

[laurie]

Those are beautiful hard to believe they are bugs.

 

[xanthoman]

about the orchids

this is my first attempt at keeping them and i didnt have them sexed until recently so i just kept them all at the same temp. the person i got them from thinks i have a decent chance of getting the females caught up in time (fingers crossed). they dont do well in large containers, they can be kept in almost any container that is at least 3 or 4 times their size but not overly large, and has good air flow. substrate is considered problematic for begining keepers, but some use a wad or floor of paper towels to help raise and stabilize the humidity, i have 2 males and 2 females. orchids are not genarally a beginner mantis (one container is not shown)

 

[ShaunaLynnA]

gorgeous looking bugs just like an orchid flower! I like the looks of them. I think I will stick to my chams and bearded though!!

 

[AJA]

Those are pretty cool, when are you going to feed them out?

 

[draetish]

Praying Mantis have always facinated me and I didn't realize how many different kind there are. I would catch them when I was younger and keep them as a pet for a few days and then release them. I had two in a jar one time and they got into a fight and I started crying. BooHooHoo Now I would love to find some in the yard and feed them to my chams.

 

[meganm85]

they are very beautiful (for a bug).....very interesting....they def look like a orchid....

 

[xanthoman]

i tried keeping them on white orchids with pink borders but soon found out that the orchid mantis are easier to keep alive than orchid flowers

 

[xanthoman]

Those are pretty cool, when are you going to feed them out?

as soon as my chams are worth $2500 apiece

 

[draetish]

as soon as my chams are worth $2500 apiece

No way! where do they come from? Why so expensive?

 

[xanthoman]

No way! where do they come from? Why so expensive?

the going commercial price for orchid mantis is about $35-50 each (not what i paid) but i figure if i was to be feeding my chams $50 feeders, the chams would need to be worth at least $2500, just for the record, wild caught hymenopus coronatus (orchid mantis), come from malaysia/borneo and are illegal to import to the US. these came from a very helpful but unamed breeder on mantidforum.net who probably wouldnt have been so helpful had they thought i would be using them as feeders. they view their mantids the way we at cf view our chameleons ,they are very protective of them.

 

[nightcrawler]

the orchid mantis are easier to keep alive than orchid flowers

I just lost one of my orchids. Boo.

 

[draetish]

the going commercial price for orchid mantis is about $35-50 each (not what i paid) but i figure if i was to be feeding my chams $50 feeders, the chams would need to be worth at least $2500, just for the record, wild caught hymenopus coronatus (orchid mantis), come from malaysia/borneo and are illegal to import to the US. these came from a very helpful but unamed breeder on mantidforum.net who probably wouldnt have been so helpful had they thought i would be using them as feeders. they view their mantids the way we at cf view our chameleons ,they are very protective of them.

I've heard they make excellent pets and I can believe their keepers have pride and joy in them, just look how awesome they are.