My gorgeous mantis

[JEMichael IV]

My gorgeous mantis

 

[DreamScape]

sw33t mantis
love the colours!

what species?

 

[joeyd]

That is a gorgeous mantis! If you can get more pics of it in the light please post them. Where did you find this beauty and how much did it cost you?

I brought home my first mantis last weekend. It's a typical peacock I named "Precious".

 

[JEMichael IV]

heres another

 

[JEMichael IV]

Here is another. According to Dr. Roy this is what he said about my mantis:

It is a male Gonodactylaceus ternatensis. I've worked on this animal in Phuket and a couple of years ago got a very large male from an importer from Bali. That animal was over 12 cm, the largest gonodactylid ever recorded. Friends tell me that this species is occasionally found on the the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. I plan to spend a few months there next year working on it (if I can find them). Every time I have seen this species in the field, it is living in live coral. They literally chip away the branches chopping a hole into the center of the colony. I know of no other stomatopod that does this. Females look just like males except that the antennal scales and uropods are orange instead of blue.

 

[JEMichael IV]

another

 

[JEMichael IV]

and another

 

[JEMichael IV]

I walked into a petshop one day and there he was. Picked him up along with a new tank and substrate all in one day. The wife was not happy about anothe tank, but she loves him now. I picked him up for I think $25 or $30 about 1-2 years ago.

 

[DreamScape]

awesome!!!

 

[Jr. Gutierrez]

Man! That is a cool mantis....can you tell me how large a mantis can get? A friend of mine had one about 7 or 8 inches and I think thats being conservative because I didnt get to see it before it died. I had already dried and was that size...I dont know how it died though. I think the PH was way off. I have one now that is about 6 inches.