u/Fine_Butterfly_2145

She is the epitome of kitten software in insect hardware 😍

This is Enigma, a wild Religiosa that I took in as a nymph with a badly damaged abdomen. Thankfully, she survived and she healed through her next couple of moults, until she became this very strong and robust female.

Yesterday, she took down an exploring dragonfly with one strike, which I didn’t expect at all, and she looks appropriately guilty now. I was a bit worried and a little sad about this, partly because a dragonfly is not prey I would risk as a keeper (and also, I like having them here), but the wild mantids are free to hunt as they would outside until I release them, and what can you do.

Her destiny is supposed to be to become Banana’s mate, and I can only hope we can come to a friendly agreement that she won’t serve him the same fate!

I‘m thinking Iris Oratoria?

It is magical living out here right now with so many mantids everywhere.

Banana has been an adult for a week. He’s had hoppers all his life. I guess with his new clear vision, the tongs turned into a threat.

The stridulation caught me off guard! I’ve never heard it from a Religiosa before.

This summer I've been living in a tent in the cork oak woodlands of the Alentejo, southern Portugal. Wild mantids fly in and move in fairly often out here, A tent is warm, sheltered, full of insects, safe from predators, so it's a pretty good ecosystem if you're a mantis. A few have moved in over the summer. But, this one has been special.

The moment she arrived, she noticed her own shadow on the tent wall and started beating her wings at it. I filmed that at the time. From that day on she basically decided the tent was hers.

She turned into one of the most engaging mantids I've known. Endlessly curious, always tracking what I was doing, learned the feeding tongs almost right away. She'd fly laps of the tent checking every corner. One day she vanished completely and I searched everywhere before finding her sitting in my hair while I was taking a selfie. She's been the Queen of Hair Mountain ever since.

Her appetite really surprised me. Not just flies, but horseflies, hoppers, moths, pretty much everything that came out of the sweep net. She's taught me a lot about feeding wild. Living out here on a varied natural diet in a clean landscape, she's thrived, and honestly she's been the easiest keeper I’ve known.

Within 24 hours of arriving she laid her first ootheca. Every time I wondered why she seemed impossibly hungry, another one showed up. In total, she laid eleven!

Several have already hatched, dozens of tiny golden nymphs. I kept four to watch them grow and released the rest back into the same cork oaks she came from. The four I kept are at I2 now.

Today something changed. She struggled to climb for the first time. She's looked a bit weathered for a while, wings frayed with age, and she's been missing part of one front foot this whole time without it slowing her down. But today her raptorial leg kept catching in the mesh, and when I lifted her out into the sun she just stood on my hand, quiet, looking out over the cork oaks.

I don't know if she's got days left or weeks. I just know she's really lived through this season. She showed up as a wild visitor and became a fascinating roommate, and through her I got to watch one remarkable female leave behind a new generation before quietly growing old.

Here’s the grand old lady today, surveying the sun and the wind. And also a picture of one of her offspring.

The odd one out of my collection of religiosa and empusids. I think he can only be Iris. i’m looking forward to getting a glimpse of the hind wings once he has hardened.

This religiosa arrived in my tent with an injured abdomen, which healed with the last moult. I know this isn’t the best photograph or angle, but I can’t get too close without worrying it.

I think I can count six segments, but I’m being thrown because it’s small compared to my two males. Opinions welcomed!

A new adult has taken up residence in my shower tent, here in Southwest Alentejo, Portugal.

This one is;

• Adult 
• Excellent flyer 
• Very small (about 25–30 mm) 
• Long antennae 
• Very short pronotum 
• Slender body 
• Angular, almost pointed eyes

 

So it’s not a Religiosa, and it’s not fitting neatly into any of the other others I’ve seen over here (Ameles, Iris Oratoria, Empusa Pennata, Apteromantis Aptera). It reminds me most of the Apteromantis, but it’s obviously excluded by its wings.

Any input welcome!

When I collected this nymph it was a very dark brown/bronze and I thought it might be an Apteromantus Aptera because it was hopping like a grasshopper and its behaviour was similar to other Apteromantis I’ve seen.

However, since it moulted, it’s changed quite dramatically, looks far more ‘normal’ and it has wing buds. It’s not Aptero.

The thing is, I don’t think it is M. Religiosa. It’s too small for the stage of wing bud development, and it has no obvious coxal spot.

The location is south-west Portugal.

This is The Unicorn (field name), so named because I was SO amazed to find a microscopic I1 Empusa Pennata in my Giant Asian’s enclosure a few weeks ago (it must’ve come in via my sweep net), and it’s genuinely made me really happy that we’ve got to I4.

For the first couple of weeks, I was worried I wouldn’t find life tiny enough to feed it with, but I found it was quite happy with tiny plant bugs. Now, it’s graduated to hoppers and it even took its first green bottle yesterday, even though still so delicate.

I love the presence of Empusids, they are so feline and equine all at once. It’s the first time it’s been on my hand andI’m glad to finally have some snaps.

A wild Empusa Pennata found her way into my tent tonight. I’m delighted, they’re my ‘holy grail‘ of natives. I always think they are like something out of a Del Torro dark fairytale.

They have a strange contradiction to them. They’re on edge without being totally frantic. They seem almost overstimulated, yet they survive so well in this harsh Mediterranean habitat where less specialised creatures perish.

Sorry for the poor quality video. My iPad can’t pick up detail with an LED string as my sole light source!

This lovely little Religiosa (European mantis) joined me today, surveying his kingdom. I already have another green nymph that’s currently moulting from my tent’s mesh ceiling! (I’m hunting for a breeding pair.)

I think this one may be a keeper. 😍

My third species find since I’ve been camping in Portugal. This one I haven’t met before. I think I might know what she is, but I’d love to hear opinions, and also estimates on her instar.

Marvel molted to adulthood four days ago. It was a copy book molt - clean, no sign of any injury. He grew his wings and all seemed well for about 12 hours. Then I noticed a small bead of what looked like hemolymph on the right hand side of the end of his abdomen. Over the next day or so it seemed to harden, but today it looks like this… Very far from normal, and it’s leaking a fair bit more. When he dragged that deflated abdomen over my hand, it left a trail of clear fluid.

Whatever this is, he is compensating incredibly well. There is no change in his behaviour. He is hunting moths, he is climbing, he even flew. From what this looks like, I’m guessing his chances aren’t good, but I really need other eyes on this. I am hopeless when it is one of my own.

Also, I have no understanding of what caused this. His enclosure is mesh, he has nothing in his way. I observed the molt, there was nothing.

Thank you in advance.

This is a wild Apteromantis (I think). It’s been hanging out around my outdoor enclosures with my two current h.membranacea buddies. I’ve never seen a mantis behave like this before. Can anyone tell me what it’s doing shaking his tail feather like that, and whether any other species does the same?

Found this little nymph on the outside of my outdoor mesh enclosure staring at my female adult hierodula membranacae and wiggling the tip of its abdomen in tight little circles! It can only be one or the other because it certainly isn’t Empusa. Any guesses?