Decimiana bolivari
Order: Mantodea
Family: Acanthopidae Burmeister, 1838
Subfamily: Acanthopinae Burmeister, 1838
Genus: Decimiana Uvarov, 1940
Species: bolivari Chopard, 1916
This species is pretty similar looking as another genus available on the mantis market, which is Acanthops sp. Both actually falls in
the same family of Acanthopidae. They have a common name as South American dead leaf mantis due to the appearance of the adult
with wings resemble dead leaves. I was lucky to receive the ootheca of this species from Germany and about dozen hatched out
couple of week later under 80F/60%. This particular species is Decimiana bolivari, originally collected from Paraguay.
This species is not very picky on the food choice, and welcome food like fruit flies. They appear to have no problem with wide range of
temperature even at L1. However, the nymphs do not climb smooth surface very well, and I lost some nymphs from falling into honey
water mean for the flying fruit flies and drown. Other than that, i have only witnessed one mismolt. Even at new born the hatchling has
pointy eyes.
After just 5 molts, and close to 2 months, the mantis reach subadult stage. Male subadult shows very large overlapping budwing while
female has smaller budwing. They welcome any type of insects, from crickets to moths, to flies of any kind so there is never worry of
this species not feeding, except for during molting period. Recently, the first male finally matured and carry long wings which explain
the large wing bud.
Currently I am waiting for the female to mature. The female appear to go through the same number of molt but for some reason this
batch appear to stuck on subadult stage. I will increase the temperature and food supply to speed up the process. But so far the male
looks healthy and robust so there is good chance to breed another generation.
