Hey Arturo. Sorry for my late reply as I'm more active on other mantis forums. We found the T. beieri nymph at Tapah Hills, the same location where we found all our other Malaysian species. This is a very rare species which is not in culture at the moment. Previous breeders have only managed to keep T. beieri or any other Toxodera sp. only for a week. We've successfully kept our nymphs for 2-3 months. We'd love to culture them in the future.

Haha, we're not really sure. Most of the time, it just happens randomly.

I'm not sure if this is allowed, but I've just created a mantis forum aimed towards Asian breeders. Anyone interested PM me for the link!

This post has been edited by mantismania: Jan 16 2010, 05:47 AM

I look everywhere! But when I'm in Malaysia, I'll go hunting deep in the rainforests at Tapah Hills. I've made very good friends with the Orang Asli there. We're like family.

December to April is the best period. Better get your gear ready now. Please join here if you'd like to discuss mantids. It's still new but we already have some reputable breeders from other forums on board.

PM me bro.

I don't think LFS sell mantids.

Yeah deforestation is killing most of them. Which is why I'm keeping and trying to breed local species.

Insects can never go extinct due to them being collected from the wild because there's just too many of them. What makes them go extinct is clearly deforestation. This is a sad thing. Malaysia is home to many exotic insects. It's devastating to know that sooner or later they'll all go extinct.

Hey guys, I'm not that active here. Please join here for more mantis stuff.

Thanks Ash for keeping this thread going. Anything can ask Ash, he expert already.

Looks like a Leptomantella sp. A very small species.

Yeah they're fast. Adults could reach approx. 3-4 cm. Actually, there's no need to use any substrate bro. Just good ventilation is needed if misting frequently. Leptomantella are easy to care for. I've kept some when I was a small boy.

Actually in S.E. Asia, we only mist their enclosure so that they'll drink from the water droplets. We don't need to mist for humidity as we're already living in a humid region luckily. The reason why I use kitchen towels is not really for holding moisture but to make it easier to clean their droppings and food remains (throw and replace with a new one when it gets too dirty). All that's necessary really is proper ventilation. Too much moisture can result in a sick mantis due to bacteria buildup from droppings and food remains mixed with collected moisture.

Guys here are some photos on how I transfer wild fruitflies and phorid flies from their culture container to a mantis enclosure. Before I first cultured them, I lured and trapped them using some medium I made. You can also use bananas and other fruits to do this. Just put the medium in a container and close that container with a lid that has one hole about 1 cm or less in diameter. Leave that somewhere and you'll eventually end up with wild fruitflies.

Once you see a good number, close the hole on the lid with a sponge and leave the container alone. You'll soon see maggots which will pupate pretty fast and you'll have thousands of flies within a week or so. Keep this going with new cultures. I use medium made from bee pollen, crushed oatmeal, etc.

This is a photo of a wild fruitfly culture container. Note the two sponges (one on top, another on the side) used to cover holes I made. The small hole on the side is used only once, i.e. when I transfer some fruitflies from one culture to a freshly started one. The large hole on top is used to transfer the fruitflies to mantis enclosures.


This is what I use to transfer wild fruitflies. It's just a small aquarium tube attached to a small funnel.


I make a hole using a one-hole punch on each of the container I have which are used for keeping nymphs or small mantids. When I'm not transferring flies, this hole will be covered with a small sponge.



When transferring flies, I just place the funnel on the lid and just push the sponge a bit. I don't take out the whole sponge because if I do, it'll be very difficult to put it back without having escapees. Also, this helps control the number of flies transferred. If you take out the whole sponge, too many flies will swarm into the funnel.



Hopefully this will help you guys out with small feeders.

Yeah that'll work if you have just a handful of mantids to feed. I've got nearly 200 mantids and I can't keep going back to the fridge to freeze them lol.

I bought it at Cold Storage Ash. Comes in a pack of three different sizes. I had to do some cutting to it though because the shape was a but odd.

I don't have any adult males at the moment but I do have male nymphs. Have you tried pairing up any Deroplatys sp.? Can be quite difficult to induce them to mate.

For adult males, you need to wait for about 1-2 weeks after their last molt to pair them up. For adult females, around 3-4 weeks after their last molt. Main problem faced is that the males will not be interested to mate at all. Sometimes they don't even notice the female. You need to get the female to move around a lot in front of the male and make sure there are no other distractions such as a lot of movement surrounding them.

If the male notices the female and makes an attempt to go towards her, then half the battle is won. Next is to wait for him to mount and eventually connect. Even when they're already on the female, it will take some time for him to connect. This will usually take hours.

That's fantastic Ryo. I'm sure you'll do fine. Perhaps you should try and pair some common species first to sort of have a feel on how to pair mantids up.

Yeah that's how we usually hand feed our mantids too. We have to cut the prey up a bit so that they'll be interested just like how you did it. Is that a D. lobata nymph?

Yeah it is especially if you've got a lot of mantids. I only hand feed those who are sick and have no mood to go after their prey.

It seems like you have a factory going on there. We should get in touch

Ramai jugak orang minat Mantis! Sayang aku bukan kat Malaysia, kalau tak boleh gi minum teh ramai2.