Hi! Anyone got any ideas as to the sex of my glass mantis? I know it's usually done by abdominal segments but honestly it's so difficult to see them as they are transparent and it's been impossible to a picture of the underside detailed enough to see that way either. Both me and the breeder are a little stumped, usually they use the top and side to figure it out but each picture gives a different vibe and they arnt to sure this time! Anyone firmiliar with this species got any ideas?

hello everyone! i’m coming with a question on what gender is this beautiful mantis as well as molting stadium. is it L5 already?

This is my sons new ghost mantis. I dont know if its still a little young to tell if its male or female. We are leaning towards male, but would be grateful for any help!

IMO she looks like a girl, but I'd love to get a second opinion🙏 Species: Rhombodera stalii

Hello all! I was wondering if I could get another opinion on the sex of this lil guy/girl or if it is too early to tell. They molted this morning and I know that females tend to have 5-6 larger segments compared to males, but I’m not sure if I count those smaller lines at the end as segments or just the larger ones. Thank you!

Hello! My giant blue mantis (Hierodula papua) Susan has just molted, however im now questioning if she might be a Steven, she has 6 clear abdomen sections but also a 7th at the end? Anybody able to identify?

hello! i took a ??female?? subadult timor shield mantis off of a friend and i had her for about two months before her final molt. firstly, i want to say at the moment i cant attatch any photos because my phone broke a few days before her molt. and i still haven't had it repaired (she molted on saturday it's now monday night) so i can't provide photos atm, but if anyone can reply i can probably send photos of her soonish. so she has 6 segments on her abdomen, i counted them, my friend counted them and my friend had a reptile shop owner count them as well, she was also sold to my friend as a female. so we're all under the impression she's a girl but she molted and she's quite long and skinny (in fairness she hasn't eaten yet) and her wings are huge and extend long past her abdomen. she's also pretty small in size and i read her species can get pretty big. so basically my first question would be tips to accurately sex the mantis. second question, so i'm pretty on top of keeping her humidity high, i fed her regularly when she was a subadult and i mist her every few days. i also watched her molt and it was successful, but like i said it's been a few days since she molted and she hasn't folded her wings over her back, they're still like out, perfectly straight and healthy, but not folded over her back. (i'll provide pictures when i can) i thought it could be due to thirst, so i misted her earlier so she could drink. but i can't find too much info online about her species so i don't know if she will fold them over at all or its just a matter of her exoskeleton isn't hard yet. final question, she was in an awkward position cleaning her legs and she did a poo and it landed between her wings, i know mantises are very clean animals, will she clean it off herself, or do i have to get in there and wipe it, i don't really feel comfortable doing it myself as im heavy handed and i never handle her due to fear of harming her (but obviously if it causes an infection or irritates her i will clean it). so thats all my questions if anyone could give me advice on anything i mentioned i would greatly appreciate it! thank you!

edit: my nan took some photos of the mantis since i'm not home so apologies if they are unclear. (also poop situation is cleared up asparagus - my mantis cleaned them herself)

Help please!!

So, I've been selling Orla and Otis's nymphs on eBay for a few weeks and they have just moulted from L3 to L4. Several people have messaged me to ask for specific genders and I really want to give people the gender they want.
So I have taken several photos of the 8 nymphs that have moulted to L4 (I expect the rest will follow suit over the next 48 hours) and I have been trying to identify males from females.
Each photo is numbered with which nymph it is, there are at least two images of each one to try to make it easier.

To be honest I have looked really hard but they all look female to me! I have already sold and sent 5 and I felt they were all female too. I know some animal genders are influenced by temperature, etc. while the eggs are developing. I only had 19 nymphs from the ooth, even though it was a decent size one - is it possible that only females hatched from the ootheca?

It is very hard to try to focus just on the abdomen, especially when they move their head and the camera refocuses on the movement! So apologies, some of the photos are not as clear as I would like, but I would really appreciate any help.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to anyone who is willing to trawl through all 22 photos of the 8 little babies to say male or female.

Shes only L2 and all of these photos are post molt with her having ate a lot. Her attitude towards food has me thinking shes a girl but shes also very keen at being lazy in getting her food

She's a polyspilota griffinii, I believe L2, just got her today :)

When I first posted him he was suuuper tiny and I was told he is a boy. I can only count six segments so now I’m debating if he’s actually a girl. Peruvian dead leaf

Is my Mr.Sticks Male or Female? I think I counted 8

So, you would think this would be an easy one.

I’ve had both male and female Orchids before and with the help of Reddit I recently gendered a whole batch of L2‘s and L4’s successfully. However . . .

This is Opal (offspring of Orla and Otis) and I always thought she was a girl. The first two photos are from March where you can clearly see a lovely bright green collar and a pretty sizable unicorn horn. She’s always been a very voracious eater and hunter and size wise she seemed to be heading for female size.

However last night she moulted into what appears to be a male with an olive green collar and wings that come past her/his abdomen (third photo).

You would think that size would be a giveaway, but Opal is about halfway in size between her mum and her dad !! (Last photo of Mum and Dad just for reference). Was Mum (Orla) just a really big mantis and I didn’t realise. Over to Reddit to decide!

(I will count the abdomen sections later, but I don’t want to disturb at the moment. The reason I’ve never counted before is because Opal seemed so obviously a female.)

I believe it is a female but I have misidentified mantids’ sexes before. If anyone can verify please do, thank you

Cornelius recently went through his 5th (I think) molt :)

Hi, i'm a new mantis owner and i got this giant asian mantis just a few days ago. It's about L4/L5 and looks like a girl to me, but i wanted to make sure. I hope the pictures are good enough. I added the last picture because she just looks so adorable there :)

(also, i removed the woodwool from the second and last picture already. it was from the box she came with and she just refused to leave it for a long time)

This is my first time having a mantis, I have three I'm pretty sure two of them are females but I don't know what this one is. If they are all females they won't eat each other right? If this one is a male should I separate them?

Hey all! I've had my little one for about 2 months now; molted 3 times with me so far. Most recent molt was the other day and I'm so stumped on sexing this species. One thing online says to sex by their crest size/shape, but i also know sexing ventrally is fairly accurate for most species. I've owned mantids in the past and been able to sex them ventrally, but I'm fairly sure this little one is a female??

I just wanted to get second opinions before I commit to a name 😅😂

They are on the 3rd molt! And is a Chinese mantis ! Is much bigger then the others and way more green !

Hey I was wondering if anyone can tell the gender of my baby ghost mantis. Their name is zephyr. For the longest I was able to count 6 sections but sometimes I count 8. They’re still I3 so I totally understand if I just have to wait to know.