Praying Mantids praying mantis site

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Species	Description	Picture (adults shown)	Size	Availability
common/ scientific name
Giant African Mantis/ Sphrodomantis or similar - exact species unknown	Very large mantis ootheca from Central Africa.  Exact species unknown.		-	-
"Giant" Devils Mantis/ Idolomantis Diabolica	Very large mantis from East Africa.  Very impressive.  This is the true devil mantis, very large.  From L2 nymphs its taken up to 1 year for my females to reach maturity at 25-30C.  A long lived species!		-	-
African Flower, No9 flower/ Pseudo creobotra whalbergii	Flower mantis from subtropical east Africa perhaps one of the most beautiful with petal like projections adorning body and legs.		-
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Rose mantis, Violin/ Gongylus gongylodes (several spellings found in literature)	Can be kept communally without any cannibalism.  Grows v-large masters at catching flying insects.  From India, dry hot. (Like being on a sunny window ledge)		-	-
Giant Indian/ Hierodula membranacea	Large bulky and a beautiful shiny green, classic mantis type, similar to other Hierodula (grandis, trimaculata, parviceps, tenuidenta) and similar to other bulky classic species like sphrodomantis.  Keep one of these types in culture (your favorite) as they are similar. V-easy to keep.		-	-
Dead leaf/ Deroplatys Dessicata	A very impressive, large bulky mantis with leafy extensions on prothorax.  Originates from tropical  Malaysia. Have a look at the microcosmos website for some nice pics.		-
Orchid mantis/ Hymenopus coronatus	The most beautiful of mantids, white and pinks with large projections on legs.  An example of extreme sexual dimorphism females grow v-large males v-small.  (easy to keep but hard to breed).  Grow quite large.		-
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Ghost mantis/ Phylocrania paradoxa	Like out of aliens! medium sized species (6cm) with lots of camoflage, leafy projections, start off dark when young then turn from orange/green/yellow		-	-
Shielded mantis/ Rhombodera Basilis	Large aqua marine/blue sheen, shielded prothorax, still uncommon in culture due to difficulties in success of breeding but very easy to keep.		-	-
Other insects
Jungle nymphs Heteropteryx dilatata	amazingly large bulky beautiful stick insects		-	-
Giant prickly Extatosoma tiaratum	amazing large leafy projection on females.  This is a very good genetic stock of this species, eggs are mixed from non-related adults.		-	-
Diapherodes Gigantea	Beautiful large (females~15cm+) bulky bright apple green stick insect.  Do much better on eucalyptus compared to bramble.		-	-
Leaf insects Phyllium giganteum and celebicum	True leaf insects	-	-	-
Guava seeds (Psidium guajava)	Guava seeds - very easy fast growing plant indoors or out best food source for most stick insects especially when young.  Have very tasty edible fruit and can be grown outdoors in a sheltered place.  Evergreen for food throughout the year!
Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleianum)	Very tasty fruit which can even be grown in temperate regions Evergreen for stick insect food throughout the year!

Started April 2003

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Praying mantids / praying mantis are very easy to care for, clean and amazing to watch, they require little maintenance and a container only a few times larger than the mantis itself, enough room for moulting to take place with several sticks for them to hold on to.  Small nymphs thrive on fruit fly's and even medium nymphs feast on them, very small (micro crickets are also good for small nymphs, large nymphs will eat larger crickets, hoppers curly fly's and sometimes each other (depends on species).  Easy species to keep include R. Basilis, H. membranacea, P. paradoxa and even H. coronatus (contrary to popular opinion this species is very easy to keep but harder to breed due to males maturing very early).  G.gongylodes and P.paradoxa can be kept together in a communal tank even as adults, other species can be kept together when small if well fed but as large nymphs and adult will cannibalise each other.  Species which must be separated as large nymphs include Hierodula, sphrodomantis and Rhombodera.

Praying mantids, praying mantis, deroplatys dessicata, creoboter, orchid mantis, hymenopus coronatus, gongylus gongylodes, hierodula, idolomantis, phylocrania paradoxa, pseudocreobotra, sphodromantis, megalomantis, megamantisreptiles, amphibians, spiders and insects.

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My breeding stock and/or exchange list:  Gongylus gongylodes,  Pseudo creobotra whalbergii, Deroplatys Dessicata, Hymenopus coronatus, Phylocrania paradoxa, Idolomantis diabolica, Heteropteryx dilatata, Extatosoma tiaratum.