u/isopode

hello! this is my first mantis. he was wild caught a few weeks ago. this evening i came home to this scene; he had molted sometime earlier today!

he seems to be doing okay, but his wings on the right side are a little wrinkled. on his left side, the top wing is perfectly normal, but the bottom wing seems to be bunched up underneath.

this doesn't seem like a normal part of the process...

anything i could do to help? i misted the enclosure a little more but i don't wanna make things worse.

thank you 🙏

hello! first time caring for a mantis. she was wild caught by a kid in my group and i'm looking to have her as a class pet until the end of the summer (and then either release her or keep her as my own pet, i haven't decided yet).

at first i put her in my old isopod habitat, the one with the blue lid (no isopods had been in there for months, don't worry). but it seemed very cramped for her (it's only 4 inches tall) & maintenance would be difficult with that kind of lid. so i went into a reptile store today and left with this brand new terrarium. it seemed decent to me but now that i've actually put her in there, i'm wondering if it's actually *too* big? if she falls from that high, could she get hurt?

i was going to add a potted plant inside, but i wanna make sure this enclosure is fine before i do anything else.

thank you in advance 🙏🙏

hello! i work as a science educator for a summer camp, teaching the basics of entomology to several groups of children each summer.

during this week's catch-and-release, one of the kids caught this mantis. i've been searching for a wild mantis since i was like 15 and have never been able to find one (i live in a big city so they're not a common sight). i was gonna release it anyway, but the kids insisted we keep it until at least the afternoon so we could show it off to the other groups of children. i grabbed 2 grasshopper nymphs and dropped them in the cage, put some twigs in there... and as the hours passed i grew more & more attached to it.

it ate both grasshoppers :)

i prepared a terrarium out of my old isopod enclosure (has been empty of 'pods for months now) because it's all i had at hand. it's long & wide enough, but i don't think it's tall enough...? it's about 4-5 inches tall.

does anyone have recommendations on how to DIY a good enclosure cheaply and without having to order online? i'll go tupperware-shopping for the perfect size enclosure tomorrow, but idk what to use for mesh or how to make holes in the container (without power tools ideally, bc i don't have a drill)

thank you in advance 🙏

never seen this before. large black bumps stuck to each wing, on both the outer and inner side. some kind of fungus??

hello! i'm not sure if this type of post is allowed, let me know if i should seek help elsewhere.

i use wikipedia frequently, but i've never edited articles (except to correct small spelling mistakes, which is quite straightforward).

i noticed a mistake in the french version of this article. the subtitle says that this is a species of coleoptera — it is not. it's an ephemeroptera. i tried to change it from the "modify" interface, but there was nothing allowing me to change the title or subtitle, from what i could tell.

help? 😅

poor gal was very lost. i wish i had a container with me so i could release her outside when i got out at my station... but she flew away 🥲

(originally posted a video but reddit killed the quality, so i'm reposting with pictures instead!)