My New Mantids from Tetracerus!

Way back in January, I won a giveaway from @tetracerus on Instagram, for 3 Heirodula majuscula nymphs and 3 Sphodromantis viridis nymphs. Apparently I have pretty good luck winning mantid giveaways! 😂 Anyways, I'd won the giveaway right before I was planning on moving in February, and asked for her to delay sending them out until after I'd settled into the new house. 

She had no problem doing so, and while talking further about the care of the mantids, I asked what size enclosures worked best for them. After she filled me in on what containers would work for these two species, she offered to send three of the 80 oz containers she uses for her mantids, which would be big enough to rear H.majuscula up to maturity in (which were the species I was most worried about, since they get quite big). Very kind of her for sure, but that wasn't all!

When the package finally arrived early last month, not only were all six mantids alive and well, but in addition to the 80 oz containers, she also included a nice little note, various bug stickers and postcards, as well as a Japanese Rhino beetle "Lego" set! Definitely among the best giveaways I've won, the extra little miscellaneous gifts really set this one apart for me. 😁 Please give her a follow on IG, she definitely deserves it!

Cute rhino beetle building brick set! ☺️

Pretty cool how accurate this little "Lego" set is, another example of how dang popular rhino and stag beetles are in Japanese culture.

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Anyways, onto the first of the two mantid species I received, the large and beautiful Hierodula majuscula, AKA the "Giant Rainforest Mantis". 😁 This species hails from Australia, and of all the Hierodula species I've seen in culture, these are actually my favorites. 😄

As far as I'm aware, these are one of the largest Heirodula species in captivity, and in terms of coloration, they're very pretty as well! 

I've got all three of my nymphs housed in the 80 oz containers she sent them with, all of which I've outfitted with lots of ventilation, added mesh to the lids, and glued climbing material to the back walls (even though they can climb smooth surfaces anyways). They've got sticks for climbing on too, and thin layers of coconut fiber as substrate. I've been feeding them various roaches and beetle larvae, and make sure to mist the sides of their enclosures every few days.

Here are some pics of my largest nymph:

They may look small and cute now, but rest assured these will get quite large for a mantis! The insides of the forelegs will also gain some really pretty purple coloration, which makes their threat displays that much more impressive. 

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Now onto the Sphodromantis viridis (AKA Giant African Mantis) nymphs. This species maxes out at a smaller size than the Heirodula, but is otherwise similar in being a fairly sizeable, green mantis.

I've got all three of my nymphs housed in dollar tree containers of a comparable size to the 80 oz ones, all of which I've outfitted with lots of ventilation, added mesh to the lids, and glued climbing material to the back walls (even though they can climb smooth surfaces anyways). They've got sticks for climbing on too, and thin layers of coconut fiber as substrate. I've been feeding them various roaches and beetle larvae, and make sure to mist the sides of their enclosures every few days.

Here are some pictures of the largest nymph in the group (which was sexed as female):

So far both species are doing quite well for me, hopefully I end up with pairs of both and can breed them successfully, always a good idea to get more experience under my belt when it comes to mantids. 😄

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉