Found these in the Garden Today

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I found these brown phase mantis in the garden earlier today.

They are safe as I'm a big fan of mantis and only occasionally feed them to my chameleons. They are brown phase Chinese mantis.

 

[suzi]

Very cool, I love mantis

 

[Thompson]

I love mantis as well great find!

 

[laurie]

those are what I am trying to grow in the backyard. I have 8 of them, some are brown some are green. They are about 3". i was working up to asking if I could determine sex by color - guess not.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

those are what I am trying to grow in the backyard. I have 8 of them, some are brown some are green. They are about 3". i was working up to asking if I could determine sex by color - guess not.

Sexing is done by looking at the abdomen. Males are thin while the females have got long tummy's. The female is on the bottom.

 

[Lizardlover]

Females have 6 segments on their abdomen while males have 8.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Females have 6 segments on their abdomen while males have 8.

Can be done that way too.

 

[flash134]

I use to occasionally feed some of the smaller ones I would find to my Jacksons and they would even take some of the bigger ones you would never think they could swallow. Yesterday at work I found a large (6") Stagmomantis carolina (?..no expert) on the emergency exit door and to the horror of my co-workers I caught it and put it in a box to take home. My goal was to possibly feed it to the Chams or let it go in the back yard. I was really tempted to feed it to to one of my deremensis teens but my wife promptly told me if I did that I could forget any supper that night...lol. I hope she or he hangs out and does not fly away!!!! We usally have a few in the yard each year but this is the first I have seen this Summer. Anyway here is a pic of the one I released...

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

That is similar to my deal. There are probably a dozen adult Chinese mantis in the front and back yards now and I actually fed two out to My Adult Parsons this morning. However I fed them out only because they were in a certain bush eating all my sub adult and nymph giant grasshoppers that I'm working towards properly starting a captive colony of this year.

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

I just checked the front yard and found an adult male and a sub adult. The sub adult was green and the adult was brown. There are many others that have not found. Yesterday in the area where I found the sub adult there was three sub adults.

 

[Cainschams]

The green ones were all over here in MD for a couple months where I live. I fed them to two veiled babies, j. jacksonii and goetzei. The smaller ones at least. That is all they ate for at least a month LOL!! Now all the small ones are gone and just the occasional big one here and there. Tons hatch but get weeded out rather quickly. A great food source though!