I moved one of the mantids into a big 360-degree terrarium last week and as a side effect I’ve been able to observe its behavior a lot better. This morning it seemed to be acting unusual, ignoring the feeder flies and very slowly creeping around the top of the dome. It’s been about 10 days since the last molt so I suspected it was getting ready. Sure enough, I walked by a while later and it was suddenly a whole lot bigger. It had just finished climbing out of the old skin; it’s hard to believe it was able to fit in there at all.

l4 mantis molted
mantis third shed
l4 mantis front
l4 mantis side

Here’s the fancy new housing for mantis #1. I figured I’d get one nice habitat in case I decide to keep one indoors for the rest of the season. The rest are in small screw-top containers, but I know they’ll outgrow them in a few weeks so I’ve been scoping out large-but-cheap options for later.

l4 mantis habitat