ID on this mantis

[Agathos]

So to my surprise I discovered a mantis in my reef system today. Cool!!

I tried for an hour to get a good picture and movie of it, by luring it with a shrimp on a stick, but these are the best I got. He seems to be completely black/dark brown, and about 8 cm/3 inches in length.

In the lousy video below the mantis comes out of its burrow to grab the shrimp at the 1:30 mark, only to retreat immediately.
<object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/APcwaYMp3zE?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/APcwaYMp3zE?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

 

[Kharn]

Your estimations as to the size mentioned seem a little off...the tiny mantis in the video is much smaller then the prawn meat your offering, which would mean that prawn meat must be like 6inchs long that is a big prawn tail lol.

Seems more between 30mm-40mm long, at that size it ain't going to harm anything really but pods and tiny snails like stomatella. At that size it makes it quite difficult to I.D. unless you can capture it, isolate it, and get macro photos...

 

[Agathos]

After posting I thought the exactly same thing, and I now believe it must be 3-4 cm, half the size I said in the first post.

I will see if I can get some macro shots of the little fellow.

 

[Kharn]

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say G.smithii your first 2 photos show a flash of white within the animal which MIGHT just be a slight glimpse of the white rim that is typical of G.smithii but, this is a pritty wild out there guess.

 

[peasofme]

try feeding a more appropriately sized shrimp.

 

[Calappidae]

Its either a Gonodactylus Chiragra, Or virdis, I doubt its a smithii because I didn't notice the antenna scales which should appear yellow, still possible tho. Virdis changes color based on enviroment each molt and chiragra has one color very dark and similar to that. Like Kharn said its a wild guess the only way we could tell for sure is if you took out the rocks it's in, and find a way to get the mantis out. It could still harm your fish because if it feels threatened with it, out of defense, possibly strike anything that decides to park and stay by it.

 

[Agathos]

I saw it outside of its cave today! It's pretty much dark all over and looks identical to this:

I believe it could be a G. chiragra.

I only saw it for a few seconds before it went under an LPS. I tried to catch it with a couple of nets but it swam into a rock column. It then climbed around on the column while I tried to snatch it, before escaping into a crevice. Very cool What do you think sustains it? Small snails perhaps? Or polychaetes? I would say the length was about 10 cm.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Do you know the source of the live rock it came in on? If it is Indo-Pacific I would guess G. viridis. It does not appear to be G. chiragra.

Roy

 

[Agathos]

Do you know the source of the live rock it came in on? If it is Indo-Pacific I would guess G. viridis. It does not appear to be G. chiragra.

Roy

It is Indo-Pacific, yes. I looked on pictures of G. viridis and that species look too light in color.

 

[Calappidae]

It is Indo-Pacific, yes. I looked on pictures of G. viridis and that species look too light in color.

G. viridis actually changes color each molt based on their enviroment. They're not all green like some suggest.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Look at my photo of animals that I collected on the reef flat in front of the biological station in Phuket. I wouldn't say that the animal second from the left is too light.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthro...eumalacostraca/royslist/images/g_viridis2.jpg

Roy

 

[Agathos]

Not at all. Then we have a good tentative identification. I will see if I can get some pictures of it the next time it is out and about. Thanks guys!

 

[Kharn]

I think it's G.smithii the very first pic shown looks like a bit of the meral spot, black dot with a white rim.

 

[Islandoftiki]

I think it's G.smithii the very first pic shown looks like a bit of the meral spot, black dot with a white rim.

Good eye. I see what you're talking about there.

 

[Gonodactylus]

I don't think so. I think the color around the whitish meral spot is flare.

Roy