Just realised something....

[instinkt]

Don't know how many others have noticed/known about this, but when I slowly move towards my mantis while hes looking at me, either with my hand or face, he'll lean his head back and open up his appendages displaying the big spots that look like eyes.
At first I thought he was just positioning himself to strike, but tonight I notied what he was actually doing. Making himself look big and threatening. Hehe, I love my mantis.

 

[dc]

Mine never does that. He comes up to the glass and just looks at me. I guess he never feels threatened!

 

[instinkt]

Lol, well mine is fairly new, I guess he's entitled to be a little defensive.

 

[Gonodactylus]

ALmost all species of stomatopods use a threat posture that involves spreading the raptorial appendages and displaying the meral spots. Species with dramatic spot coloration such as G. smithii and G. ternatensis seem to use this posture more than most. The added components or spreading the antennal scales, rearing the head back and extending the other mouth appendages produce the extreme threat that you are seeing. This appears to be used against predators such as you and not that frequently against other stomatopods. The exception is when the animal is molting when it is particularly prone to threatening. This is in fact a bluff since it cannot strike.

Roy