Dr. Cadwell, ID verification Please

[venwu225]

These are pretty bad, do excuse me:

I believe this animal is a female G.chiragra, but have been
told other wise. Also it was really diffcult to capture the telson
in a shot...

and Dr. Cadwell:

What is the largest recorded size for G.chiragra?

 

[rwhhunt]

BEAUTIFUL MANTIS!!! I LOVE THE YELLOW EYES!!!

 

[Jacob D]

A few of those pics are excellent. What are your camera specs if you don't mind me asking? Nice mantis by the way

 

[mikehulen]

A few of those pics are excellent. What are your camera specs if you don't mind me asking? Nice mantis by the way

I agree. Excellent camera work there. Gorgeous mantis too.

 

[Gonodactylus]

I"m not sure what the color spectrum of your lighting is, but the purple Antennal Scales and maxillipeds are unlike anything I've seen on your standard Gonodactylus chiragra. Still, if the animal comes from the Indo-Pacific, there aren't many other possibilities unless it is a new species. The red pleopods in the 4 th image are closer to what I would expect in a G. c female. To your eye in daylight, do the scales really look this purple?

The largest G. chiragra that I have ever collected was 95 mm and the largest reported in the literature (that I can find) is 104 mm - just a hair over 4 inches.

Roy

 

[Gonodactylus]

I've looked around a bit for G. chiragra with purple antennal scales and I found one water color by Serene of a brown mottled female with purple scales. The animal was from Viet Nam. That leads me to believe that this coloration is possible. Until I see the telson, I don't want to say for sure, but G. c perhaps coming from a grass bed is possible.

Roy

 

[venwu225]

why grass bed specifically?

THanks so much for the imput, I will try to obtain photos asap,
its neat that our animal has a unique coloration

 

[venwu225]

AND the animal looks every bit as purple, if not more than the photo in normal daylight

 

[Gonodactylus]

Certain colors and patterns run in the gonodactyloids. A pure apple green is common in several species including Neogonodactylus bredini and N. wennerae, Gonodactylellus virisdis, and a few others. Typically you find this coloration in low intertidal species that live in eel or turtle grass beds - roughly the same color green.

Roy