Unboxing RARE Praying Mantises!

babies oh my gosh there are so many in there wow I wonder what stage these two or three are in maybe yes I guess star. two more up there, yeah, because there are some that are a little bit bigger than others, so I guess I should define the word instar, uh, when a mantis first hatches into its first instar and then when it multiplies, it turns the second into a star and so on up to like eighth in stars for some species, different species have less malts with which they need to reach adulthood, but it is also called uh l, which sounds strange first, it could be i or i, It could also be i2, yes, it could also be i, okay. if they are first in stars that means it is their first form of life essentially they just hatch from their eggs they are in star first in star or i1 they are also called or l1 they are also called and then they become i2 i3 i4 or l2 l2 l3 l4 until they become an adult, that's what we mean by stage, so there are a lot of different names for it, how many times have they melted exactly, I should have said that would have been more concise anyway, I think these are like l2, since it looks like there maybe a few l1s here, one is probably a l2, but the one behind is probably a l1 and this is the texas mantis unicorn unicorn wait, where's your onesie?

Oh I didn't bring this, sorry I didn't prepare for this, this species is native to the southern United States, you can actually find them in the United States in the southernmost tip of Texas, still technically in the United States you can find them we will name it in texas go america it is barely in texas but it is our texas unicorn mantis the majority of its population resides in central and northern South America but they can be found in the southernmost part of Texas so yeah, of course, that's what we'll call it, that's why they're called unicorn

mantises

and you know what I should take out. to the adults no, we don't have the adult, that's the other one, oh, that's the one, oh, that's the other one, okay, we don't have an adult for this and that's okay, I'll look for a photo instead of finding a photo , Charles Put. a picture right here of this texas unicorn mantis thank you charles thank you charles now that you know what they look like you can see why they are called texas unicorn mantis and they are named for the horn the horn is caused by two dorsal projections that They stick out from their head and they start out as small as bumps like the juveniles, but then as they get older those horns grow and overlap and become like one horn that never likes to fuse together, they're two distinct projections. or pieces but they overlap and it's kind of cool and then his horn can pierce the sky.

Okay, we're back from that nonsense. Some people will get the reference. True fans of the show will get the reference like many other mantis species. This is a sit and wait species where they are ambush predators, they basically just stand still and wait for the prey to fly towards them. They prefer flying insects to crawling ones, but won't pass up a meal if they can catch them. it's on a branch in front of them but they eat a lot of butterflies and moths and they grow about three inches when they're adults so they get to about three feet yeah that's a good size and even as the first ones in the stars they're good. size which makes them nice to have as pets because you're not dealing with a potentially crushable or escapeable uh mantis, but yeah, so Texas unicorn mantis, uh, this one will be in our store, in fact, sent them over to see how well they do. people please and finally we have, oh my gosh, look at them all, yeah, they're like big sticks, this is the giraffe mantis and they're called giraffe

mantises

because their thorax is unusually long, disproportionately long as far as mantises go, It seems we had a couple. maybe two victims in transit oh one tried to molt in transit that was your fault buddy I don't know why you decided to multiply while you were in heaven anyway we have some baby giraffe mantises here and we have an adult yeah let's show the adult it's okay, oh, this is the one that is mated, she is an adult female, okay, cool, mated, potential, fertile, uthaka if she lays one, hi, beautiful, wow, they are so skinny, wow, apparently, apparently, they are very nervous, it's funny because I was I'm about to say, based on the research I've done on these, apparently they are a more sociable species and they seem to enjoy watching people around their enclosures and they get huge as adults, like You can see, it's not like there's much circumference. for them or the weight, but they are just a thin, extra long mantis, can you imagine leaving your house with your head and then, an hour later, your body follows you, yes, of course, this is what life must be like for them Oh my god, are you so long?

That's so weirdly long, but I mean evolution is pretty magical sometimes. What is the evolutionary advantage of that? I guess I want to look more like a twig. So we have observed mantises that look like living leaves, decaying leaves, dead leaves, flowers, and now. Twig evolution is amazing sometimes, oh you grabbed my finger with your claw, okay let's not do that, I know you didn't mean to, I'm trying to control it, by the way this is not a species that is found in the US are others found in Southeast Asia, so they're not really from around here, another really

rare

species, although in the hobby that was as generous of you as if you had bread, I wonder If the male came out of the mating alive, so in case you don't already know and are confused about what we are talking about, many times when you are raising mantises, the male will mate with the female and then during the mating process mating, the female will start eating the male's head first, so he can continue mating while she eats him, so it's a win-win for her to be bred and fertilized and she gets a good meal and he doesn't get nothing he doesn't get, so you can avoid it, sometimes you can avoid losing. the male feeding your female and distracting her with food while he does his job, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes he says: "Oh, this cricket is very tasty, but I will eat this head too, yes, she will eat both at the same time".

At the same time there's really nothing you can do, look at their little wings, although yes I noticed they can't fly, yes they are totally a crawling species, not that mantises can really fly in general, it's more of a glorified fall , but still those wings. they are abnormally small i think i feel like she is very wobbly this is not a well handled species she is not as solid when it comes to balance as some of the other species so i will let her come back here for now and there. Come on, I have no words, it was so generous of you that Ben reached out to us and just offered to send us some mantids and a little clout, without asking us for a video in return or anything, he just wanted to spread his love for mantids and once we saw three. o I heard you were sending us three boxes of them, we thought we have to share this with everyone else too, so we decided to do the

unboxing

video today and I'm impressed how generous you are then or for sending all this, so thank you from us by visiting their website jaxmantis.com or jax mantis on facebook.

He has species that I have never seen before in my life until today and he sent them to us, which is crazy, I can't. Believe how kind you've been, thank you, thank you for the loot, the stickers and I'm sure there are stickers and loot on their website as well as preserved specimens if you're interested in anything like that so please give them a try look yes If you want to join a community of mantis lovers, go to the Facebook group called Mantis Meet. I just became a member and it is full of wonderful information from very experienced breeders and keepers, including Ben with Jack's Mantis.

Yes, I highly recommend it if you want to learn more about mantises, so yes, we are going to have these nymphs available in our store as well, but we will definitely put them in our zoo, so if you come to our zoo after this video comes out, definitely try to find her in the exhibit because the giant Asian mantis that is there is getting pretty old anyway so I wouldn't mind removing her backstage and she can take over and be an amazing specimen for people to find. We'll have to load it with dead leaves, yes. I think I'll change, well we had orchids when it was the orchid mantis that Luke sent us and she passed away from old age and now it's full of greenery for the giant green Asian mantis that is currently there, so yeah, can we change things and put dead leaves there for good cryptic camouflage?

I also like how she's been sitting on your hand, everything okay, okay, I'm here, yeah, and this one here has been looking at everything and looking for food. looking to cause mischief everyone has different personalities thank you all so much for watching today's video I hope you enjoy it oh now she is moving oh yes yes she dances in a way I hope you all enjoyed learning about mantises and meeting some new species, species weird like we did today this was this has been amazing thank you to our patreon patrons for their endless support and we are so lucky to have so much support in our lives do you realize this yeah thank you for these mantises thank you for all these wonderful gifts.

After this we will set them up in individual habitats, maybe if you are in the area you can catch one of the nymphs, yeah maybe you can get a giraffe or a Texas unicorn and then if you get a unicorn then your horn. It can pierce the sky and with that we finish you