Mantispid

(1 customer review)

$5.00

Out of stock

Description

A mantispid and a mantis are an amazing example of convergent evolution and the insect sold through this listing is not a mantis, and yet I’ve placed them here in the mantis section because it is mantis keepers that are especially interested in sourcing this rarely (as in never) offered insect. We have no experience shipping these odd neuropterans that mimic mantises, and so I’m offering them at an introductory price of $5 each as a test to see how they do and with NO LIVE GUARANTEE, sorry. They are small and measure between half an inch and 3/4 of an inch, on average, but take down relatively large prey for their size. House flies or D. hydei fruit flies are recommended.

Plega is usually but not always the genus for the ones we offer.

 

Additional information

Weight .15 lbs

1 review for Mantispid

  1. hamperstance1 (verified owner)

    I was SO excited to try my hand at this species! There was no live arrival guarantee, but I’ve placed maybe 20 or so orders on this site, so I trusted Peter to do his best. The mantispid arrived with a cooling pack inside (it’s July) and appeared perfectly fine and looked like it was simply waiting for its next meal. In fact, it was SO mantis-like that I did what I normally do for young mantises—I opened the lid and tried to get it to crawl onto my finger to put it into its enclosure and… Poof!!! It flew off!!!! I remember thinking, “You dummy. It’s a FLY! What were you thinking?” I was in the kitchen at the time, so I quickly pulled out a curtain rod and a sheer curtain and put it in the doorway in an attempt to at least sequester it to one room. It’s a tiny little thing and I spent the rest of the evening watching every step carefully and made sure there was no standing water for it to drown in and didn’t use my stove top. Now that I had it in my noggin’ that it was a fly, I figured I’d see it fly around and easily catch it. But no luck finding the little one. They seem to be a bit picky about when they choose to actually fly. Hmmmm. The next morning, I started looking again. But nothing. I have several houseplants in my kitchen, so I figured that at least it might get a fruit fly or fungus gnat as a snack. By midafternoon when the sunlight started bursting thru the window, I made myself think like a fly. Because if I were a fly, I would go to the window. Around 3pm (almost 24 hours later) there was the mantispid!!! Naturally, being a fly, it landed in the perfect spot on the latch on the window where it couldn’t be easily caught (or smacked with a fly swatter) so I luckily had some netting and put it all around the area. The mantispid fly is SUPER docile about moving air and activity around it. You could put your finger literally right behind it and it wouldn’t move. I was able to easily coax it into the netting and then used a piece of duct tape to close the net up and put the fly in the refrigerator for about one minute to slow it down. Took it out and it was “resting” and I was SO worried because this technique works with regular flies but… I put it into the enclosure I’d had ready and waited. About a minute or two later… It woke up and was a bit groggy at first, but immediately found a perching spot to look for prey. In short, this insect is utterly fascinating and hardier than I thought. Trying to do some extra research now in regards to humidity, temp, and other needs—but don’t hesitate to give these a try! Just remember… it’s not a baby mantis. It’s a fly!!! Peter, you may want to put a note on the travel cup like you do for some insects to warn that “it bites”. “It flies”. But it’s doing great!!! Thanks!!!

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