
General information
Distribution | Australia |
Habitat | Rainforest |
Size | Females up to 10cm Males up to 9cm |
Life expectancy | Females up to 2 years Males up to 1.5 year |
Colors | Green, with red on the inside of the raptors. |
Agressiveness | High |
Difficulty | Easy (Perfect beginner mantis) |
Group keeping possible | No, only in L1 |
Keeping requirements
-Individual keeping: From 20x20x20cm
-Smaller nymphs are best kept in smaller enclosures in order to make sure they can catch their food more easily.
Terrarium setup
-Substrate: soil, sand, kitchen towel, coco peat, spagnum moss or a mixture.
-Climbing surfaces: Branches, live or plastic plants, mesh sides or a combination.
-Ventilation: Top ventilation, best to provide ventilation from the side as well.
Temperature
Day:20-28C
Night:18-22C
Humidity: 40/60%
Food recommendation
L1/L2 | Small and big fruitflies |
L3/L4 | Big fruitflies and curly wing flies |
L5/L6 | Blue bottle flies, Green bottle flies, small roaches |
L7+ | Blue bottle flies, locusts, redrunners, dubias, other roaches. |

Sexing:
In general: Praying mantises have segments on their abdomen(=belly). The amount of segments differs for males and females. This is a reliable method to use for sexing nymphs, the bigger they are the easier it is to see the difference.
Breeding
Adult stage:
Females will be adult in L9, males in L8
Amount of molts can sometimes differ when they are kept under extreme conditions. Both adult sexes will have wings, but especially the males are capable of flying short distances.
Sexual maturity:
Females are sexually mature 4 weeks after their final molt, whilst males are after 3 weeks.
Oothecas & incubation
The oothecas are around 3-4cm big and have an oval shape. The color is usually brownish. Up to 5 oothecas can be laid, with an interval of around 20 days. The first ootheca will be laid around 5-6 weeks after the last molt.
It takes around 5-8 weeks for the ootheca to hatch. Up to 100 nymphs can hatch per ootheca. The freshly born nymphs are around 5mm in size.