Big Momma

Post by **Dinyar** » 11 Jul 2005, 00:36

Quite a fascinating insect. The male (brown) is in front and the female (green) in back, the latter big enough to make a substantial meal out of.

Now if only someone can supply me with the scientific name!

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 11 Jul 2005, 00:45

It's in the process!
I got a couple of friends who're as deep into Phasmids as we are into catfish; I just send them this pic.....

my first guess would be Heteropteryx dilatata, but I'm not that good at these, too many species of bugs, you know

Rense · Post by **Rense** » 11 Jul 2005, 06:33

nice animals!

well yeah, what can you expect me to say? I love every animal which isn't as common as a dog or a hamster

MDOU · Post by **MDOU** » 11 Jul 2005, 07:30

I agree with sidguppy

We know them as a 'Common Malasian'

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 11 Jul 2005, 10:27

I just got confirmation from the phasmid-experts; it's Heteropteryx dilatata allright!

nice ones btw; pets or a pic taken while travelling?

Post by **Dinyar** » 11 Jul 2005, 14:36

Yes, you're quite right, Sid. You're quite a "Master" too!

We saw these in the Insectarium in the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Well worth a visit if you ever happen to be in Montreal. The second largest botanical gardens in the world, they claim (I presume Kew must be the largest?).

These were captioned with the species name in the Insectarium, but I neglected to make a note of it. Now that you mention it, I remember, and a quick search of the web adds much other interesting info.

Definitely motivated to keep more insects... Rusty's tarantulas are pretty, but boring; even Chaca are active by comparison! A young expert at the Insectarium suggested mantids as one of the most "interactive" yet easy-to-keep insects to start with. What do you think?

I remember keeping them as a kid. It would go to school perched on my shoulder, until one day it flew out the classroom window!

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 11 Jul 2005, 15:09

Haven't kept Mantids before, because of the food issue.
even the biggest ones eat small insects like crickets, flies and the like.
keeping and/or breeding their foodsource can quickly lead to getting a plague of bugs on your hands.....as I found out when still living with my parents and keeping small lizards at the time.

They look fab, though. Been on a huge insect-auction 2 weeks ago, and they had plenty Praying Mantis species, including the ones who look like a legged orchid

There's lots of dedicated people breeding those, over here; the insect/inverts-hobby is definitely taking a big flight in the Netherlands!

I got a fair collection of bugs myself; all live at school.
recently I scaled it down, but still got
2 tarantuala's (yup, very lazy critters

): a Mexican Redknee (Brachypelma smithi) and a Chilean Red (Grammostola rosea)
4 species of Roaches: Peppered Roach (Achrimandrita tesselata), Hisser (Gromphadorhina portentosa), Dwarfhisser (Ellipthorhina chopardi) and Giant Roaches (Blaberus giganteus)
2 species of Phasmids: Giant Spiny Stickinsect (Eurycantha calcerata) and Vietnamese Spiny Stickinsect (Neohirasea maerens)
breeding group of Giant African Snails (Achatina fulica)
4 big Giant Millipedes (Achispirostreptus gigas)
a pair of Aussi Redclaw Lobsters who breed on occasion (Cherax quadricarinatus)
and a leftover of beetles (Pachnoda)

wich is a bit much, I admit (I have at least as many bug-cages at school as fishtanks at home

)

I kinda like roaches the best. they're active, busy, peaceful, very easy to keep (they feed on the table-leftovers hence cost you zip on food) and most are hardy. unfortunately there's this massive bigotry thing when starting with roaches.......most people think they're dirty, creepy and no good at all.
once seen a roach cleaning itself (exactly like a cat does, and at least as thorough), and you'll see that in fact they're very clean. and if you don't live like a bum (do they have those reality TV shows in the US about people living in their own collected garbage?), they're harmless.

Next to roaches, I'd say beetles! tropical Rhinoceros-, Fruit- or Stagbeetles are truly stunning, and a lot of species are not hard to keep or breed. these too are easy with food (fruit-parts and honey mixed with water; larvae eat fruit, greens and soil with rotten leaves: compost!), easy to breed and very colorful.

Until recently I bred:

after summerholiday I plan to set up a breeding colony of:

Post by **Dinyar** » 11 Jul 2005, 20:34

I think one of the things that's revived my interest in keeping insects is keeping FW shrimp. They're very insect-like, and quite fascinating to watch. (No, I don't mean just the "cherry reds" that seem to be in fashion these days...) Something you should check out, Sid, if you haven't already.

Now if only I could find some good sources of interesting mantids in the US! Seems like all the sites I find are European. W. Europe is way ahead of the US when it comes to exotic pets! Take shrimp for instance: virtually ignored in the US, except for a handful of supposedly "cleaner" species, but obviously given much more serious attention in countries like Germany.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 11 Jul 2005, 21:05

I've kept shrimp in the past, Glass-shrimp and Redhand Shrimp.

what is the FW shrimp? can you give me a latin name?
then I'll check m oput. a few nice shrimp might be a nice touch to my riverine tank.

didn't know the 'bug-hobby' was that bad in the US, since there's a whopping load of really good caresheets all coming from your side of the pond, including the famous Roach Pages!

According to the peeps in the inverts-forum (yup, I'm on that one too), spiders, Scolopendra's (big nasty centipedes) and Scorps are all the rage in the US too, like here.

abit of googling got me stumbling across this US-based insectkeepers forum
you might dig up a few contacts in here.

and HERE is a list of people breeding mantis in the US

http://insecthobbyist.com/ looks like another starting point of a bughunt to me.....

happy hunting
SG

Post by **Dinyar** » 11 Jul 2005, 21:17

Sid, thanks for the useful links on US bug-keeping!

Sorry, FW = freshwater!

Most of the current interest in shrimp seems to be in Caridinia and Neocaridina, but check out some of the Macrobrachium species. Also Atya and Atyoides.

Many Caridina complex and Macrobrachium are easy to breed, more like cÃ®chlids than catfish.

I tend to agree with the view that most shrimp are best kept in a shrimp-only tank. Otherwise, in the long run they (bigger species) will either eat your fish, (smaller species) get eaten by them, or (big, specialized species like Atya) slowly starve to death.