Tyson, and sexing Catchy

Tyson. Tyson, Tyson, Tyson.... I love this little mantis - he is full of personality, he loves to eat, he loves to come out and be handled. I especially love that after I named him Tyson for his little boxing gloves, I discovered that he also likes to nibble me! So he boxes and he bites, and I love that he is just living up to his name in every way.

Here he is giving my finger a little nibble. He likes to walk up my finger, nibbling as he goes. He is so small right now that I don't even feel it, but I do think it's incredibly cute.
He moulted this week, for the first time since he got here. When Catchy molts, she looks significantly bigger each time, but that's not the case with Tyson. Maybe Tyson is just a slower growing species, but I didn't even realise he had moulted until I saw his shed skin lying on the floor.

And since we're talking about mantids, I thought we might focus on Catchy for a little bit. Catchy is definitely a favourite invertebrate of mine. She loves food, which means that unless she's moulting I will always get a great feed response, and she is loely to handle. Mostly she just likes to walk around my hands, although there are times when she's taken a flying leap onto the wall, or the doorframe. I love how whe she looks at me, her eyes appear to have pupils which move around as her head moves (yes, I know that's just the effect of compound eyes, but I love it regardless). Catchy is also calm enough that my daughter can handle her without fear. She's amazing.


Since Catchy has molted again recently, I wondered whether she was large enough to be able to tell whether she was male or female. I have never sexed a mantis before, so I may be wrong about my observation. From what I have found online, the easiest way to tell what sex mantis you have is to count their abdominal segments. Females, who have a wider abdomen as adults, will have 6 abdominal segments regardless of their age. Males will have 8, with the last three being small enough to be comparable to the females 6th segment.


It was actually quite difficult to take a decent photo of Catchy's underside as when she is in my hand, she is always on the go. But after several failed attempts, I was able to get the photograph. Note how wide the addomen is in general (though Catchy is far from a mature adult) and the number of segments. I am reasonably certain that Catchy is therefore a female and from now on will be referred to as such (unless I am corrected!). Feel free to post your thoughts on this though!

Here she is taking on a rather large cricket, which she absolutely demolished. She has an immense appetite. I could absolutely envision her biting the head off some poor unsuspecting male mantis one day...