Wide arm mantis possessed huge and wide raptorial arm with two visible black mark located at inner part of the arm. These species can have several color morphs through out their entire life. It is interesting to see how they change from one color to another just from single molt. Adult female is bulky and lighter in color while male is usually darker (brown) in color and much slender. They do not grow very fast but it could be me keeping them in cooler condition at 75F. A native African species, they are pretty hardy in tolerance towards temperature and humidity fluctuation but appeared to be vulnerable to any infection which is almost fatal in most cases.
I started this species recently (2006 Summer) with ootheca from Germany, after incubation (at 75-80F/70%), about 150 nymphs hatched out in two days. They are brownish green at L1. First molt commenced after 10 days. The large raptorial arm (especially for female) is not obvious until L4 when the widen arm became noticeable by naked eyes. They continue to grow with just taking house flies; each molt is taking extra days as compared to previous molt. Male tends to grow slower than female as all my female matured into adult sooner than male.
