Euchomenella (Giglio-Tos, 1916) – Giraffe Mantis

Introduction

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Euchomenella are one of the slimmest species in culture. They are fantastic stick mimics, and their long body and legs help them hide easily in the tangle of branches in the rainforests they are from. Despite their relatively thin body, this species is quite adept at tackling surprisingly large prey for their raptorials. They are very hardy, and communal among same sexed individuals, making them a wonderful colony mantis for people who are interested in keeping groups.

 

Adult females are capable of laying over 6 oothecae in their lifetime, and each one contains between 30 and 50 nymphs! Despite the egg cases being extremely small, the nymphs are folded in very tightly, and thus even the smallest ooths can hatch a surprising number of offspring.

 

While they may not appear to have a lot of color patterns, this species actually has very colorful raptorials, with reds, pinks, and some purples in some color morphs appearing on the inner faces, and diamond shaped patterns on the top of their abdomens. Females are incapable of flight, having only short wings, however males are very much flight capable.

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Sexing

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As with all mantises, males have 8 external sternites, and females have 6. Males have 7 molts and females have 9 molts. Adult females have short wings, and males have full wings.

 

Keeping

 

Euchomenella can be housed communally when young, and in same sex groups as older juveniles and adults.  

 

Recommended space is as follows:

 

Instar 1 – 4  16 oz Deli Cup

Instar 5 – Adult 32 oz Deli Cup

 

Using the metric above, an appropriate amount of space should be provided for communal setups to minimalize cannibalism.

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Feeding

 

Instar 1 - 4 – Drosophila species

 Instar 5 – Adult – Houseflies, Blue bottle flies, Small Crickets, Roaches

 

Breeding

 

Euchomenlla can be somewhat difficult to mate due to the size difference and growth rate difference between the males and females. Once the female is 5 - 6 weeks adult and males are 3 weeks, mating is possible. Males are skittish and thus should be put in the mating enclosure prior to introducing the well fed female.  Once the male mounts they will connect for 6 – 10 hours.

 

After mating the female will lay anywhere from 6 – 10 oothecae over her lifetime around every 3 - 4 weeks. After 4 – 6 weeks incubation at room temperature, around 30 – 50  nymphs will hatch per oothecae. At this stage they can eat Drosophila melanogaster or Drosophila hydei.