It had very interesting characteristics of which I have theorized, but googling provided naught. I can provide about 10,000 photos though if necessary. =)
This guy was albino-pale. I thought it was just a shedding but then he wiggled his mouthparts at me. His eyes were whiter than his body, but he was still barely off-white. About 2" long, very skinny, found indoors, appeared to have ovipostors or something my mother thought were stingers. It also had, inside of its upper arms near its armpits, one black splotch with a pure white filled circle inside per arm. A mating/sexually adult coloration? We put it in a jar to take photos, and he got stressed, grabbed his right antennae with his ‘hand’ and stuffed it in his mouth and groomed it for a while. Very cute.
I thought it was so pale, and just poof! appeared in the stairwell of the basement that it might be a little sensitive to UV so we put him in a very shaded pot outside.
Any speculation on its behavior/coloration/species? Or should I upload the photos?
I’d like to see a photo. It sounds different from the Praying Mantises I’ve seen in the US, but that might be due to shedding or something. Or, it might be a tropical species brought in on a houseplant or produce–I’ve gotten more than one baby lizard that way.
There is the best photo of it we had, it illustrates his spots a little bit at least, and his size and bizarre albinism which I didn’t think bugs would have for some reason.
Oh! Blarg. This is Salt Lake City, UT. And I am wondering now also if it was good to put it outside in a very shady big pot, or if we should recapture it and…something, I’m not sure what I would do with it. It didn’t seem to come from outside, as it is a loooong way to the next door, and the only foreign thing was an exercise bike that was in the garage, he could have come from there. No foreign plants at least except a teeny airplant it could not have fit in if it went on the Atkins’ diet for a year.
I can’t see pink eyes so I’m not sure it’s albino. I’ve seen tropical Mantises that are that color. It might just hang out on white colored flowers in its native habitat. I’d have brought it down to the science dept. at the local college & have the entomologists look at it.
Wait a moment… You thought you saw ovipositors, but you’re calling this critter “he”? Time for an anatomy lesson, methinks.
And non-pink eyes doesn’t mean a thing. Mammal albinos have pink eyes because we have red blood, but I’m pretty sure that what passes for blood in an insect isn’t red.
I know mantises don’t have stingers. And I have no idea if the ‘stingers’ are ovipostors, since I’m not an entomologist, I much prefer studying mammals. I just call all bugs ‘he’ because they seem masculine and I get tired of saying ‘it’ all the time. I do know ovipostors are female-only, but I had no idea if male mantids have external genitalia or not, or might when they are sexually mature or something.
Well I dug a little, hexapoda blood is yellow, or amber, or nearly colorless, so I guess pearly eyes are within the bounds of nature.
Still no ideas on the antennae grooming being a stress behavior or the spots significance, if any?
For gender classification:
males have 8 abdominal segments and females have six
Did you see a hardened foam ootheca lying around this is where it could’ve been hatched from? Don’t worry about there being siblings. Chance are it was hungry and ate them.
If it’s a Sri Lanka type then it could grow to be 10 inches
If you keep it in a cage catch it a bunch of insects to eat, maybe this sweetheart is not ready for such a delicacy but they’re also known to eat hummingbirds.
I hope it doesn’t invite over the extended family - cockroaches. But they’re similar because they have a simple or incomplete metamorphosis. There is not a caterpillar or maggot stage. The young go through several nymphal stages in which they resemble miniature wingless adults. Does it have wings yet?
here’s a great link to explain the housing situation if you want to keep it as a pet http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/mantis/
scroll down to housing
It didn’t seem to have wings, but I thought they might be very small and pressed against the abdomen (there were no wing anchor parts though that I could see, where the wing attaches to the body), no foam, the only other insects I’ve seen down here was one spider and one earwig (the extended family :p). I guess it was a boy as it had more than 6 abdominal segments. Great site – maybe he isn’t albino, since he looks just like that African one at the top of the page, per color and all.
I’d love to keep him as a pet but we have hobo spider problems and have to spray a lot, so he could only really live outside and get bugs regularly. They don’t move far from their little house do they? Like, we put him in a very shady, big bush, so he’s likely to stay there for a good while, or at least in the yard-vicinity? It would be neat at least, go out there and visit him every once in a while. Watch him grow up until he could star in a little B-movie horror/sci-fi film with the dogs.
Maybe you could bring him to a local school. It’d be a nice science project for grade schoolers to watch him grow and send you reports. Then you don’t have to worry about him getting eaten. Well unless there’s a kid like Jimmy Eagon in the class.
I’m halfway up South Mountain, actually. Apparenly we’re being overrun. If they are African Mantids, then maybe somebody got them as some pets/classroom thing, and they are propagating since they apparently live in dry semi-hot environments. And with the weather lately…who knows. It is a thriveable place for them here and now.
And parlo americano, we set him free out in a big hummingbird bush (before we knew some mantids can eat hummingbirds, hah), so he should be staying in the wild I figure, I doubt we could seriously find him again.
glad to hear you let the gal go. My WAG is that the 2 white mantids are both members of the same local species, since we are so far apart that they couldn’t be the same critter. Most likely a genetic sport.
Although I vaguely recall hearing/seeing that some mantids can change thier color somewhat for camoflage?
I don’t know if Praying Mantis are the same the world over but we get millions of them here, and often inside. What I have noticed is if they are inside for more then a couple of days (I am one of those softies who won’t kill bugs- except flies) they tend to go very pale in colour. I always assumed it was something to do with lack of sunlight. In fact we only catch them and put them outside when they have gone pale cause I like having them in the house.
As to the grooming of the antennae, this just seems to be standard operating proccedure. As a kid I kept pet Praying Mantis cause they are so very cute. I would catch flies or moths and the Mantis would cheerfully sit on my finger while devouring a fly (even though I hate flies I did feel a bit mean watching the fly wiggle whilst being chewed). They always finished dinner with a spot of grooming much the same as a cat.
