Dr. Roy: can you ID my Mantis, please?

[Kara]

He is about 2.5-3" long, about 3/8th" wide.
Body mainly gold colored, with bright green color at the end of every scale. Legs are blue. His 'club' is green with gold splotches. The inside of his 'club' has a large white area with a purple spot in it. Eyes are pink with a black mid-band. Here are the pictures!

THANK YOU very much for you help!!!

EDIT: if these pictures aren't sufficient to get an ID on him.. I'll try to get better ones. Just let me know what areas I should concentrate on!

 

[Kara]

the 'spot'

 

[Kara]

telson

 

[Kara]

upper body

He is missing a 'club' I'm sure it will grow back in a few molts. He was housed with a few other mantis at the LFS (all of them had been pulled out of clients tanks) and he was the only one left. I figured he lost it in a fight, or it was damaged and he pulled it off or it came off in a bad molt.

 

[Kara]

front

 

[lilswanwillow]

hi

hi

i know, i'm terrible, but i searched for purple meral spots on here, and heres the results with pics: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106742&highlight=purple+meral
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=155588&highlight=purple+meral
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=159634&highlight=purple+meral

hmmm, but yours is really, really purty!!!
i can't id it, but i can try to help!!!

 

[Kara]

yup that did help lots..! I'm not close to a positive id.. I don't know enough about this species yet. It very well could be a Gonodactylus smithii. Not sure tho because of the light blue base of the 2nd arm (club) and he doesn't have the bright red-orange spots at the base of the uropods. The uropods are a uniform gold color.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Do you know where this animal came from? My guess is that comes from the Caribbean. If that is the case, it is probably Neogonodactylus oerstedii.

Roy

 

[Kara]

Not sure. Came out of a tank of a friend of a friend of mine. I'm sure I can find out! When I do, I'll post it.

Thank you very much! Going to try to do some research on the Neogonodactylus oerstedii!