I received a large number of Asiadodis yunnanensis from Yen Saw this week! I had seen photos of the Hooded mantis (Choeradodis species) growing up in South Korea, and was dreaming to raise this kind of mantis some day.  So I am delighted to get the chance to raise the Asiadodis yunnanensis that are from southern China and nearby countries in Asia.  Asiadodis are a related, Asian version, of the Choeradodis.  The ones I have are L2 at the moment and so hardly have any hood yet.  But they should eventually grow a very large hood or fake leaf on their pronotum.  

I have just started raising Spiny flower mantises, and I had trouble trying to get the males to mount the females. I eventually got all the males to mate by putting the males onto the female's back using a plastic tooth brush.

The slippery plastic tooth brush made it easy to slide the male off onto the female's back, and even stimulated the male to mount because I guess the male felt like the tooth brush was a female underneath it. Once I put the male on top of the female, he stayed on the female and was interested in the female. But I usually had to use another tooth brush to keep the female from attacking the male. It might take some skill to keep the female from attacking the male when manually putting the male on top of the female... 

The male should be at least 2 weeks old to be ready to mate I have read. Also, the female needs to be about 3 weeks old, if I remember correctly, so that she is ready to mate. Feed the female before trying to put the male on top of her. It may keep her from trying to eat him, and even feed her while trying to put the male on top of her to keep her busy eating. the female from attacking the male when manually putting the male on top of the female... Is your male at least 2 weeks old and ready to mate? Also, is the female at least 2 weeks old, too, so that she is ready to mate? Feed the female before trying to put the male on top of her. It may keep her from trying to eat him, and even feed her while trying to put the male on top of her to keep her busy eating.

​The males don't mate for me on their own except in the early mornings before the sun comes up.  And so I had trouble trying to even get the males interested in the females until I found this out.  Now I mount the male manually onto the female with a plastic tooth brush so that I don't have to wait until early morning to pair them up. 

​ In the early morning the males start flapping their wings and become active, even flying in their cages. It might be that in the wild, the early morning before sunrise is when male Spiny flower mantises fly to look for a mate. If you raise the temperature to 90F it might help to stimulate the male to mate.

If you have many Spiny Flower Mantises to mate, it may be easier for you to just put the male in with the female in a net cage and leave them alone for several days until you see the male mounted on her and mated.  Make sure to feed the female so that she is not hungry to eat the male!

Hello!  This is just a quick list of mantises found in Japan.  I will make it better after some time passes.  Some of this stuff I list might be wrong.  I saw this great post of Mantises of Japan here: http://m.blog.naver.com/eldkfnrk1/220618816567​

Japanese Wikipedia page about Praying Mantises  

==Hymenopodidae==
Acromantis japonica (found in mountains.  I don't know if they are found at lower elevations.  The Acro in this genus's name might mean high because they live in mountains?)
Acromantis australis (in Kyushu)
Acromantis satsumensis

==Mantidae==
Mantinae
Tribe: Mantini 
Statilia maculata maculata 
Statilia nemoralis
Statilia parva (in Okinawa)
Unknown species of Statilia from Okinawa
Statilia hyalina (doubtful if it's a real species; might just be a lighter color variant of one of Statilia listed above)
Mantis religiosa sinica (M. religiosa go up north to Hokkaido in Japan, along with the Tenodera sinensis(?))

Tribe: Polyspilotini
Tenodera sinensis or Tenodera aridifolia?  Or both species?  I am leaning toward Tenodera sinensis at least being the common ones in much of Japan, since they are so big and thick.
Tenodera angustipennis
Unknown species of Tenodera in Okinawa (Big in size and skinny)

Tribe: Paramantini
Hierodula patellifera (lives in trees and maybe bushes)
Hierodula venosa (non-native found in Nagoya and Tokyo)
Rhombodera valida (from this website said to be in Japan)

Amelinae
Ameles nawai 

Orthoderinae
Orthodera burmeister (in Okinawa)

Here is a video of two B. mendica. I got them from Mikhail Kujawa (Tree Top Reptiles).  I'm wondering whether these guys are B. mendica mendica or B. mendica nuda.   I read something about the B. mendica nuda subspecies having hair here:
Mantodearesearch.com: Literature Giglio-Tos. Click on the second  Giglio-Tos, 1917 and go to page 69-71.

Edit:  Sorry, other way around.  The B. mendica nuda lack hair on the pronotum and some other parts of the body. 

The plants I just gave you are simple to keep.  You need some water and soil.
If you do not put in a little soil in the container with water, the plants slowly die I think because of lack of nutrition.  

The water in the container can be shallow or deep (I usually prefer shallow, 3 or more inches deep of water) and the soil can be an inch or less deep.  

If you use fertilizer, do not use too much or you will burn/kill the water plants.

You can also just put in a fist full of potting soil that does not really make a layer of dirt on the bottom, but the guppy grass might need a layer of substrate or a synthetic sponge for it to grow it's roots into, the floating plants like the frog bit love to grow their roots all the way from the surface where they float down to the substrate.

After you got the plants in the container where you will let them grow, you should not shake their container or move the plants around while they start growing their roots.  Just leave them alone for a few months (not exactly sure how long it takes) for them to grow roots into the soil in the container with water.  Also, if the water evaporates, pour in more water, but do it slowly/gently for the plants.

Put the plastic shoe box or goldfish bowl (whatever you are keeping the plants in) in an area with some sunlight.  More sunlight is better, except for the guppy grass (Scientific name: Najas guadalupensis) which will burn if kept in strong sunlight.  I gave you just a small amount of the guppy grass so you might not be able to grow them.  I will get some more of the guppy grass next time we see you.  The guppy grass I read are sensitive to different water conditions from what they are used to growing in, such as when put it in a new tank.  So the guppy grass might take a while to get started growing, but after it is doing alright and growing roots they will probably grow well.  

The guppy grass can be kept with much less sunlight than the other plants I gave you, and the guppy grass I think could live with just artificial light.

Here are some links to pictures of Psychomantis borneensis.  Hymenopodidae; Acromantinae; Acromantini.
http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/TaxBrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=303803
ID by Dracus
https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/355519055/in/set-72157618071726495

New genus: Tenospilota nova.  Mantidae; Mantinae; Polyspilotini.  Mantodea.speciesfile.org. http://mantodea.speciesfile.org/Common/editImgSnd/GetThumb.aspx?ImageID=199846&Width=640

"Plistospilota nova".  The last Beier, 1930 (Page 452) https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_iJfIsJ4GB0NTY4MmEyY2QtZGM5My00ZmMxLThlYTMtYzViZTVkNjdiOGNj&usp=drive_web&ddrp=1#

"Hisserdude" on Roachforum.com caught a female Parcoblatta (looks like Parcoblatta americana) as a sub-adult from southwestern Idaho, Boise Idaho.  I have read that there are no native roaches in Idaho, Montana or Wyoming from here:  http://insectexpertphd.com/cockroaches.aspx

     He has allowed me to post some of his pictures of her on my blog, here:

How to breed and raise cockroaches.  Because some people may have no idea how to keep roaches here is some general information over how to do it.

Gather a lot of deli containers. lol Put many needle sized holes on the deli container lid or cut out a chunk of the deli container lid and glue small screening (such as no-see-um screening) to cover the patch on on the lids for oxygen and ventilation. Get something like potting soil. Put a layer of potting soil of about 1cm deep or less in the deli container. Put a few pieces of bark that do not grow mold, and a few dried leaves. First test to see if the particular roaches you have do better in a semi moist or slightly dryer than that conditions. I have kept my roaches in the past too moist and so they did not do well. Keep the substrate just a little moist to a little dry on the surface on the substrate (some species of roaches though may need to stay moister than this). Feed them bread or other stuff. There should be some foods to avoid like coconut oil (I have read that it is toxic to roaches) and things with pesticides. Store the deli containers with roaches in a shady spot where the sunlight does not shine on the roach deli containers because sunlight will heat up the deli containers until it gets too hot for the roaches and so the roaches roast to become BBQ. lol I do not know of much else you need to do.  Some roaches have less tolerance for extreme heat than others, for example Byrsotria sp. "Cuba" cannot withstand some hot temperatures that other roaches like Turkestan roaches and Pycnoscelus femapterus can live through.

Keep the oothecae like the roaches.  Probably for most species slightly moist conditions is best for oothecae, but that possibly is not true for some species, like desert Arenivaga possibly will need dry conditions for the oothecae (I do not know.).  

You can also try using net cages to breed roaches. Just keep some substrate on a plastic sheet on the bottom of the net cage and keep the substrate moist (Because you have so much ventilation in a net cage you probably will not have problems with too much moisture.). Put slabs of bark on top of the substrate in the net cage for shelter for the roaches.


Other types of cockroaches, like the Blaberidae will probably do better with different care, with deeper substrate and some rotting wood.  The Blaberidae are usually easier to raise than most egg laying species of roaches.