Praying mantises are solitary predators in the wild and aren't ever truly communal. This doesn't mean you can't do it, though. Follow these rules to optimize a communal mantis setup: - Don't house highly aggressive species together (Sphodromantis, Pnigomantis, etc). - Give each mantis sufficient space and perching areas. - Keep an abundance of food in the enclosure. - Keep similarly sized mantises, and same sex, together. Ultimately you only do a communal if you are willing to possibly lose some of your mantises.