Gurders Mantis

Idolomantis diabolica

IGM 167

 

1st instar 2nd generation nymphs 

Adult female

1st gen adult with ooth

end-May 09:

After noticing the oldest female (Mrs wonky wing) calling I put her into a males cage along with loads of flies. I put the cage into the greenhouse as it was a nice warm day and left them to it. Several hours later I checked on them and the male was on the job

 

May 09:

This is a very very long overdue update, I have managed to breed this species  and now have my 1st generation adults.

Sub adult foreground & adult at the rear, both females

Here are some long overdue and for me very significant pictures.

Box 1 ticked

Box 2 ticked 

Box 3 ticked oh yess!

 

Aug 08

I have now got adults, they have taken a while to colour up and they look spectacular now, How impressive is his threat pose!!

July 08

The males have now moulted to sub-adult and the females subsub-adult

June 08

I now have sexed my 9 remaining Idols and have 3 females & 6 males. The males have been taken out of the shed and are back in my room.

7th instar female

 

Male enjoying a snack 7th instar

1ft cube net cages (males near females far cage)

 

5th May

Suffered a couple of losses . Falling during moulting, I have now rehomed them into a net cage with a thicker gauge netting and they all seem able to grip this better than the finer mesh. Some of the original group are now 4th instar

4th instar nymph

27th April

All of the original group has moulted has now moulted to 3rd instar. They have now lost the pinky tinge that they had as 2nd instar

3rd instar nymph

20th April

Kettering bug show and I couldn't resist getting some more of these beauties

17th April

All of the nymphs have now moulted to 2nd instar without and shedding problems. My greenbottle casters took a bit longer than expected to hatch so I tried them with blue bottles and they took them happily  They couldn't manage a full 1 which isn't surprising.

 

2nd instar nymph

8th April

I have now got 6 of the mantid royal family. I wanted this species the very first time that I saw them but after research I found out that they were no beginners species so I waited for a few years to gain some experience in rearing mantis before taking the plunge . I have got them as 1^st instar so they will be even more of a challenge.

1st instar nymph