# Praying Mantis Shots



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Well since bigstick120 made a post about the mantis he found I thought I'd add some pics from back when I used to keep this mantis as a pet.





































These creatures honestly look like aliens to me... I think they would be terrifying if you were a small creature...


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Nice pictures, Zapins. You had a female _Tenodera aridifolia sinensis_. In the last picture, she is drinking water.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

I noticed the black spot on her eyes is in a different spot in each picture. Do their "pupils" move around as they adjust their focal points or is that a product of light reflection in the photography?


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

The black spot is a 'pseudopupil'. It looks like a pupil, but it really isn't. Each facet of the compound eye sends light down a tube to where it is absorbed and detected. Shielding pigment along the sides of the tube reflect light coming from the side and prevent it from getting in. You see down the tubes to where the light is absorbed only in the tubes pointing right at you.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yup, a Chinese mantis. She was a great pet. She would actually stretch out towards me when I went to pick her up just like in picture #2 and then climb onto me. In fact she never wanted to get off me and would find a way to crawl back on my hand/arm whenever I tried to put her back. She also always seemed to want to sit on top of the highest point she could see which was usually my head/neck area. It was a little creepy at first since her coloration is very insect-like, but after a while it didn't bother me and she would sit on my shoulder like a parrot.

I was actually pretty surprised that she lived for such a long time. I found her in late fall, it was already chilly outside. I was on a botany field trip to a marshy area that had some sort of huge razor grass clumps and other emersed plants and she walked across the boardwalk so I stuck her in my camera bag and took her home.

She was actually already pregnant when I found her. I kept her for about 3 months and she was doing well, then she laid 2-3 egg pods and died almost immediately after (within a week). It was really sad. But still, they don't live more then 1 season (1 month as an adult usually) and I had kept her for 3 months as an adult so she was pretty old when she died.

Their eyes are really interesting, despite the pupil effect being an illusion they are quite personable because they always look like they are looking at you.

Here you can see the individual eye facets that HeyPK was talking about (the white spot is the reflection of my camera flash):


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

you gonna be back in korea any time soon?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I don't think so.


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## speedie408 (May 4, 2009)

Those are some AWESOME shots Zapins!

I take it the eggs never hatched since there was no male?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hey thanks! I also love photography 

Oh they did hatch. I think she must have been fertilized before I found her. There were about 300 babies. Unfortunately they hatched while I was on a 4 day vacation and they basically all died in the bag I had them in. One lived, and ate a little bit, but he died during his first molt. I think I didn't have the cage moist enough for him to exit his old carapace properly. I wouldn't mind raising them again in the future if I ever found one.


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