Neogonodactylus wennerae?

doctor, as mentioned earlier we believe i have a female of this species. someone relatively local to me presented me with pictures of a mantis they caught, which appears to be greenish and i'm waiting to find out where the rock it came in on is from, my small goal is to find a mate for the female i've got, can you tell anything from these pics as to what this guy is? and if it is most likely a male of the n. wennerae, is the size difference of him being 1" and my female being 2.5" an issue? thanks hmm. the tail looks a bit different than mine, though.


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It is definitely a Neogonodactylus, but I can't be sure of the species. The darker color is typical of a male.

One inch N. wennerae are about a year away from mating. I'm afraid that if you put them together, the female would be toast. However, if you have to put together mismatched gonodactylids, it is safer to do it with a smaller female. Large females definitely would kill a small male if he couldn't get into a small cavity that she can't enter.

Roy
 
thanks for the reply. to ask a question of ethics, should i ask him to bring this mantis to the club meeting and put him in with my larger female to chance them getting along, since he was probably going to throw away the little guy anyway, or is his life until he gets older going to be in hiding from the twice as large female until he catches up or finally gets caught? yes, the best solution would be another home for the guy but that is out of the question at this time. maybe feed her a large meal and casually throw him in? none of this is cast in stone as the owner of the above creature might not be able to make this meeting. forgive my ignorance, by the way. :o

edit:
if i were to put him in the tank in a small critter carrier, could they study each other through the plastic and i guess if she doesn't try punching at him that may be a good sign? (see above concerning ignorance).
 
With a diversity of cavity sizes, animals of different size can often coexist quite well. In the field, it is not uncommon to find several gonodactylids of different size all sharing one piece of coral rubble the size of a baskekball. The worst that can happen is that he becomes lunch. That may sound hard, but is his life any more valuable than that of a crab or snail that you feed a stomatopod. What makes him special is your interest in the animal. To a hermit crab person, it would be the other way around.

Roy
 
amen. at least his head might be smashed in by something of a grand calibur, as opposed to a human foot or a toilet flush. thanks for your help and insite. your research is fascinating.
 
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