Giant Asian mantis
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| Hierodula membranacea |
The giant Asian mantis, hierodula membranacea, is one of the largest in the mantid family. Its colours vary from green to yellow-green, or even brown to reddish-brown. They are similar to the giant Indian mantis and the giant Malaysian mantis. As the name suggests, they originate from south-east Asia. Male and female adults reach around 10 cm, excluding extended forelegs.
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[edit] As pets
[edit] Food
Giant Asians mantises in captivity will feed on basically any given insect, as they have a vigorous appetite. There are exceptions, such as wasps and ants, as these can deal harm to the mantid. This species is particularly cannibalistic, so it is wise to keep them separate as pets.
As nymphs, focus on fruit flies to start with, following on to micro crickets and then larger. As adults, mainly crickets, locusts, waxworms, mealworms, houseflies, and other small insects. It is best as a general rule that you do not feed it any prey over half its size as it could fight back causing injury to the mantis.
Feed your mantis a variety of food to keep it healthy. In the wild, a mantis would feed on a large variety of other insects, so it makes sense to try and vary its diet as much as possible.
Feeding with tweezers every now and then saves a lot of time and makes feeding much easier for the mantis. Use tweezers to hold an insect by its legs/wings and put it in front of the mantis. It will snatch the insect immediately. Mantises sometimes prefer to catch insects itself so don’t hand feed them all the time.
Both adults and nymphs are best fed every three days or so. Do not worry if it stops eating for a week or two, as this usually means it is going to moult soon and will start feeding about one or two days after moulting.
[edit] Water
Daily spraying/misting gives the mantis the water it needs to survive. However, a mantis will readily drink water offered to them. Whilst the mantis is on your hand or outside of its faunarium, you can try gently spraying some water a short distance in front of it, then watch it lean down and drink. Its entertaining mouth parts move very quickly.
[edit] Faunarium
The habitat for the mantis is mainly shrubs and tree areas. Set up of the faunarium should be in a similar way with small branches and leaves, which in turn can hold some moisture and keep humidity at a suitable level.
The floor of the faunarium should be covered in substrate. Bark chips are usually a good choice because they can hold a lot of moisture and they are organic. A layer around an inch thick should suffice.
Generally the mantis will most likely stay in one spot for long periods of time, so will benefit from a piece of netting under the lid if the lid is not already made of netting. Do not use adhesive to stick the netting up, as your mantis could get stuck in it.
[edit] Humidity
Naturally living in hot and humid climates, they should be maintained with a temperature of 22 C to 30 C (71.6 F to 86 F) with the humidity in the region of 60% to 70%.
Maintaining humidity can be quite tricky. Placing a plastic container filled with clean gravel and water can greatly increase the humidity. The gravel is placed in the container to prevent the mantis or its food from drowning if it falls in. A sweet tub or something similar in surface area would be good (10 cm x 10 cm).
The mantis faunarium will still need to be misted on a daily basis. Beware of making the humidity too high, this can lead to increased risk of disease.
[edit] Temperature
This mantis will be happy kept at room temperature, although a small heat mat would be beneficial during the winter as the ambient temperature is usually lower. Heat mats should be placed on the outside of the cage to one side of one of the walls. This helps create a temperature gradient across the enclosure so the mantis can choose an area of suitable temperature.
A thermometer and humidity gauge is essential in order to maintain the right temperature and humidity requirements for your mantis. If using a heat matt, it would be wise to place a thermometer at either end of the faunarium to measure the temperature gradient. The humidity gauge should be placed in the centre of the faunarium.
[edit] Moulting
The mantis should not be disturbed in any way during moulting, as it is the only time when it is defenceless. All live food should be removed from its enclosure as it could attack.
Mantises have a hard external skeleton called an exoskeleton. This means that as they grow, the skin will get tighter and tighter until it is finally shed. As they age, they will shed their exoskeleton several times until they reach adulthood.
The mantis’s skin sometimes darkens over time until it sheds its skin. After it has moulted, its new skin will be brighter in appearance and their overall body size will increase dramatically.
The mantis will not eat for a while before it sheds its skin. It also might not eat for a couple of days after the process either. When the mantis has reached adulthood it will no longer need to shed, and should have its wings after moulting the final time.
[edit] Jumping
Be a little cautious, as this mantis can jump! Although not very far, it can leap around twice its body length. When it is an adult, it will not need to jump since it will be able to fly.
[edit] Handling
Mantids should not be picked up as they may attack your hand or can be injured. They can usually be handled by allowing it to crawl onto a hand. By placing your hand in front of the mantis in a vertical position, it should crawl to the top. Make sure to keep your hand away from your face and pointed upwards, or it will try to climb up your arm or leap.
[edit] Breeding
Sexual, very limited parthenogenesis abilities. Females can be identified from males by the fact that she has 8 abdomenal segments, while males have only 6. She also has a much larger abdomen.
[edit] Eggs
The adult female will lay several egg sacs (called oothecas) over her life span. These are best removed to a separate container as mantis are cannibalistic. The oothecas are best suspended six to ten cm from the bottom of the container as the nymphs 'abseil' down a thin thread to the container floor when hatching. Hatching takes place around six to eight weeks later and up to 150 nymphs can be expected.
