Ground Mantis (Litaneutria minor)

Appearance

This small mantis is indigenous to the western US deserts and spends most of its life on the ground rather than on trees or bushes. Females don’t fly so their adult wings are undeveloped compared to the males. Their brown bark-like appearance enables them to blend in with their desert surroundings.

Sexing

Both sexes grow up to about 3 cm long. After the 3rd molt, 8 segments can be counted on the male’s abdomen while 6 on the females. Adult females have tiny bud-wings while the males have much longer wings and longer antennas.

Accommodation

This species of mantis relatively resistant to all kinds of conditions, although it is best to keep them in a moderately warm atmosphere. Keep these at 30-35 C (86-95 F)…they are a desert species and will require some extra heat during the day. Keep their humidity maintained at around 40-50% like their arid homes.

Caging

Their cage should be well ventilated. They actively hunt their prey so a relatively openned tank is most beneficial. And they like to stay on the ground and do not climb trees that much so a few branches will be fine. The females will only use the branches for ootheca laying. The general rule for caging is 3x the mantis’ length for the height and 2x for the width and length dimensions but you might want to increase the floor area. They are very aggressive towards each other so nymphs must be separated as soon as possible. Feeding

This species is a generalist feeder. Start out with fruit flies for nymphs and move to small crickets, house flies, moths, and larger crickets for larger nymphs and adults. These do not need any further coaxing to eat. If they are hungry and they see something crawling around, they will actually chase it down. They are quick and efficient. They will bare down on their prey in an instant. Feed them as much as it will eat in one day and do not feed it for another 2 days. Watch their abdomen, if it is hugely inflated, then stop feeding them. As for watering, mist nymphs lightly every other day and one to two times a week for adults.

Molting

a mantis will stop eating a few days prior to its molt. Mantises molt about every 2 weeks as babies and the time in between each molt increases as they get older…so their last molt into adulthood can sometimes take as long as 3 weeks. It takes about 7 molts for females and about 6 for males. To pair up a pair of male and female, speed up the growth rate of the females while slowing down the males’ with cooler temperature and less feedings…once the female has molted, speed up the male’s growth to molt him out. During molting, it is vital that you do not disturb them and also make sure that the humidity is at a safe level…the suggested level is fine. The mantis will hang upside down from a branch or the screen lid and will sometimes shake or spasm violently. Then after a while, it worms out of its old skin and will hang out to dry. Once it’s dried, it will resume eating and being its normal self.

Reproduction

This species can be difficult to breed due to their aggressive nature. After 2 weeks since their last molt, introduce the female into the male’s enclosure near him. A mature male will respond quickly. It could take hours before the male does anything though. He will jump on her back and hold on for dear life. The female can be distracted with food prior to this to make it easier on the male. While she is busy eating, she wont be able to grab him as he mounts her. After a while of holding on (this could take from hours to days), the male will bend his abdomen down to connect with hers and mating will commence. It has been observed that this species is more prone to sexual cannibalism than other species. The female will almost always eat the male during/after mating.

Ootheca

After two weeks or so, the females will be depositing her oothecae (plural for ootheca). This species can lay around 6-10 oothecae. The tiny egg cases are about 0.5-1 cm long and contain about 10-20 eggs. Remove the females from the oothecae or the oothecae from the females afterward. After 4 weeks or so of incubation at 30 C (86 F) and 70% humidity, the nymphs will hatch out. Separate them as soon as possible to reduce any chances of cannibalism as these are aggressive towards each other. These can be fed on fruit flies a day or two after hatching. Then continue to care for them as this care sheet suggests.

Additional Notes: I recieved two wild caught adult females. One was bred by the seller and the other appears to be a virgin. The gravid female soon produced a small ootheca about 0.6 cm long. And just five days later, she produced another ootheca, this one was about 1 cm long. The other female finally laid an ootheca 10 days after I recieved her (and about 2 weeks after she was caught by her collector). There’s a chance that she mated in the wild, but then she must’ve bred right before her capture since it took her 2 weeks to lay an ootheca. Otherwise, her ootheca is infertile. But I intend to incubate it anyways.
These are aggressive mantids. They actually come down from their roost at the screen lid and chase down their prey and devour them quickly. I’ve also noticed that their legs were not made for climbing. They can barely hang on to the sticks and continually fall. The female in the picture on my palm could not even cling on to my hands.
The oothecae lain by the females started hatching after only 4 weeks of incubation. The tiny nymphs are about half a cm and run very quickly. They hatch separately one by one instead of the bursting type.
The hatchlings are incredibly difficult to raise. Because of their small size, most of them were unable to tackle even the smallest fruit flies…and as a result, they all died due to starvation. I had a single nymph who lived up to the 4th molt and then died of mysterious reasons. This species was fun to keep, but very difficult to culture.