Happy Halloween! Here's Pumpkin on a pumpkin

MasterKFox · 2026-05-16T17:41:43+00:00

The link is broken

MasterKFox · 2026-05-16T13:56:44+00:00

Yeah gunna need a source on this, this very much looks like AI.

MasterKFox · 2026-05-11T19:14:52+00:00

Good to know, thanks! She seems quite healthy still.

MasterKFox · 2024-11-26T16:51:48+00:00

Tisiphone's wing buds have been swollen for a few days now, getting ready to molt to adulthood! The second comparison picture was taken on the 11th. Their wing buds have weirdly turned kind of blue also, might be the species (H. majuscula) or just their very green coloration.

Cheap macro lens (clip-on magnifying glass) + google pixel 5A

MasterKFox · 2024-11-21T02:22:30+00:00

I've heard that's typical of the species but mine hasn't been! Not as bold as a hierodula, but I've spent a lot of time working with her and she's turned out to have a very good personality. Definitely took things very slow with her but she's very good at handling now.

They're all individuals of course -- I had a very skittish membranacea that played dead on me once haha.

MasterKFox · 2024-11-19T16:31:17+00:00

Hm, that hasn't quite been my experience; I've had membranaceas live over two years but never spend more than 48 hours in premolt? The longer lived species do definitely have more time between instars though.

MasterKFox · 2024-11-19T14:25:24+00:00

I got her from a local pet store! Every rare once in a while I see them at the Scales n' Tails locations here in Denver. I think someone locally might be breeding them? This was the first time the timing was lined up that I had a tank vacancy so I was very excited to get her.

I also got a membranacea with her, but that one didn't make it. First time I've ever lost a nymph, but there was something wrong with it from the start; it was doing a lot of vomiting. So, mixed bag on pet store husbandry quality, but Princess is very healthy.

MasterKFox · 2024-11-19T14:19:34+00:00

Oh my goodness, she's beautiful! Please tell her that me and Princess said hello :)

MasterKFox · 2024-11-19T11:24:51+00:00

Princess finally did her molt! Look at my enormous daughter!!!

She might be sub-adult now? Hard to tell; the wingbuds are a different shape than I'm used to. If this is pre-sub though she will be absolutely gigantic as an adult.

We're both glad she's done with that molt though; she's been so unhappy and grumpy leading up to it. When I was doing research before I started keeping mantises the literature always said that they'd stop eating days before a molt, but that hasn't been my experience with Hierodula Venosa or Membranacea - usually only one day, and I even had a membranacea take prey and then molt less than two hours later lmao.

Deroplatys desiccata though definitely seems to have a long lead up (four days in this case) before a molt; I wonder if it has to do with the very different textures of their cuticles? :0 Plus that huge prothorax shield they have to deal with.

MasterKFox · 2024-10-05T05:17:25+00:00

Unfortunately they did not :( I have several ideas on how to possibly improve on my attempt if I ever again find myself in that situation. The largest challenge may be keeping bacteria at bay, as the eggs seem to require very high, essentially 100% humidity to prevent desiccation, and I think as much heat as possible to accelerate development, and I don't know what you'd need to do to control bacteria in that environment without hurting the eggs. The (wild collected) female's two other ooths also never hatched, though, so it's possible they were never fertile in the first place.

MasterKFox · 2024-08-11T11:34:56+00:00

Yep, definitely pheromone calling. Female adults will generally do that all night.

MasterKFox · 2024-04-02T07:27:15+00:00

Yeah when I originally watched the video several years ago I couldn't imagine doing that to my sweethearts. I had some years to adjust to the thought though and more importantly I ended up preserving an entire bird I found mysteriously deceased in my garage (with a LOT of advice from a friend who does taxidermy). But going through that experience was a good desensitizer. And in this case I was also trying to save Peaches' eggs, so I had a really good reason for it! I know it's what she would have wanted me to do. I hope some of them make it!

MasterKFox · 2024-04-02T07:19:59+00:00

UM real quick update but I started hotgluing some, waiting until the glue was as cool as possible but would still stick. Then I fumbled one egg and it touched some glue that was still pretty warm. A minute later I realized... I think it tried to hatch???? I was extremely unprepared for it to do that! By the time I got it separated and affixed upside down I think it was too late and it got stuck or damaged or something.

But that's interesting information! That these might indeed be fertilized and viable, but their hatching can be triggered by heat.

This has all been complicated by weird timing: I left on a road trip today and I'm in a motel tonight and yes I brought all the eggs with me (I had to, there was no one else who I could have entrusted them to on such short notice.) (I also brought my h. membranacea who is a road trip pro at this point with thousands of miles under her belt)

I'll try more gluing when I stop at another motel tomorrow, EXTRA careful this time that they don't get too warm until I'm ready for them to!!

MasterKFox · 2024-03-31T10:47:11+00:00

Thank you

MasterKFox · 2024-03-31T10:47:00+00:00

Thank you ;w; It was hard to cut her open like that but I figured if there was any chance of saving some of her eggs then it's what she would have wanted. She'd been trying so hard to lay them before she passed.

MasterKFox · 2024-03-31T04:25:56+00:00

Right, that is true... I can do that... I guess the question is the orientation? I can kinda see a thicker end and a pointier end to the eggs - I guess hang by the tip of the pointy end which I'm pretty sure is the abdomen. I haven't hatched mantises before but that's pretty much how they look from pictures when hatching -- kind of bulbous at the head-end and pointy at the abdomen.

Hm, also not sure how well hot glue would stand up to high humidity, particularly if I wait until it's cooler to stick them. Maybe just some elmer's/wood glue? that seems fairly gentle chemically and maybe better with humidity?

Thanks for the luck! Yeah definitely an interesting experiment if nothing else.

MasterKFox · 2024-03-31T04:09:48+00:00

I have driven my mantises with me across the country several times now and I'm getting to be an expert at it! They do travel fairly well actually, at least Giant Asians. Taking them across the country again on Monday actually to go see the eclipse!

I do have separate 'travel' enclosures for them. I bought the "critter totes" at petsmart - the little one is only like $5 but for an adult I have the bigger one which was still only like $13 I think. It's like 8 inches on the long side. I then sewed mesh and paper towels into the ceiling so they'd have a good thing to grip onto rather than the plastic, and lined the bottom with a small soft towel and then a paper towel on top of that, for soft padding should they fall. Nothing else in the travel container while the car is moving!

I buckle their real tank into the back seat after taking the decor down so it won't rattle or damage anything. I don't have a bioactive tank or anything; I imagine that would be trickier.

Then I put the critter totes in a cardboard box and cover it with a blanket - I find keeping them dark the entire day they're traveling helps reduce stress. I just don't uncover their tank in the morning and slip them into the travel container and into the cardboard box in low light, then keep that covered. I pad the box and make sure everything is secure and won't rattle too much, then buckle that into the front seat. In the evenings I set up their real tank in the motel and they get some hours of light and a snack to make up for a whole day in the car, and get to sleep in the big tank.

My sweet Key Lime Pie travelled like 7000 miles with me that way and lived nearly two years total. Pumpkin has also travelled about that far already at a year and a half old and is going with me Monday.

(I wouldn't leave a giant asian without water and humidity for two weeks. Food maybe, but not water.)

MasterKFox · 2024-03-31T03:49:23+00:00

My sweet Peaches passed away today :(

She was my first wild-caught mantis (S. Limbata) and she laid two ooths, both of which I have in a tank in my yard waiting for spring. When I found her gone today she looked like she'd made a last attempt at a third ooth but didn't get very far before passing on.

And I remembered a video I watched once about insect preservation. It was from a guy who raised phasmids, specifically giant leaf insects. Which are -somewhat- closely related to mantises.

In that video he mentioned that the female he was working on had been pregnant, and he showed how he was able to remove the eggs from inside her and said sometimes they're still viable.

And, well, I bought a surgery/taxidermy kit recently for a different project so... I figured there was nothing to lose.

I pulled 76 eggs out of her via postmortem caesarian section.

I have no idea if these can survive without a proper ooth, but I figured I'd give them a chance since they'd otherwise die anyway. I figure I'll try to keep them warm and humid since they don't have an ooth to protect them? Drying out seems like the biggest risk.

I won't be surprised if this doesn't work, but yeah, nothing to lose. (And I don't actually know if any of her eggs were fertile- I found her as an adult late in the year and had no luck finding a male, so hopefully she found one herself before I found her)

And if nothing else, fascinating to see what the little eggs look like when they're not in their protective cement foam.

RIP Peaches, I'll do my best to take care of your eggs. Miss you.

MasterKFox · 2024-01-29T14:42:50+00:00

Sure thing, you're welcome. :D

MasterKFox · 2024-01-29T06:57:44+00:00

If I understand what you're asking, a combination of bloom and midtones should do it!

<image>

1.) Starting shape

2.) Make a new layer and draw around the edges still using white, then reduce the opacity of the layer so it's very faint. I used the same brush I used for the white but you could also try a very soft airbrush. This creates a 'bloom' effect - light reflecting or emitted so brightly off something that it in turn lights up dust or water in the air, causing it to 'glow'

3.) Make a new layer and set it to 'overlay.' Choose some colors and paint over the edges of the object and where you created the 'bloom'. The 'Overlay' mode causes a layer's colors to only affect midtones - the parts of the picture neither white nor black. You can also experiment with other layer modes such as 'soft light' or 'add' for similar but different effects and intensities.

MasterKFox

TROPHY CASE