Giant Asian Mantis

About 23-25 °C is ideal and room temperature (20 °C) is acceptable, with nights no lower than about 17-18 °C. In a cold room use a heat mat on the side on a thermostat to give a warm and a cool area.

No UVB required; a 12-hour day from room light or an LED keeps it active and feeding.

2-5 cm of coco fibre or plain paper towel; it lives on the walls and branches, so substrate mainly helps humidity.

Nymphs: fruit flies, then small flies and crickets every 1-2 days. Adults: flies, locusts, crickets or roaches up to about half their body size every 2-4 days; remove uneaten crickets, which can injure a moulting mantis.

Mist every day or two so it can drink droplets, but keep good ventilation: constantly high humidity is a leading cause of death in this species.

Branches and artificial plants to climb, and a mesh lid or top from which it can hang to moult.

Most deaths come from failed moults (too little height, wrong humidity or disturbance) and stagnant over-wet enclosures. It moults about 10 times before adulthood and stops eating for a few days beforehand; do not feed or handle it for 24 hours after a moult.

Tolerates handling well and can be walked from hand to hand. Harmless; a defensive grab with the forelegs may prick slightly but is not dangerous.

No licence needed in the UK; it is not CITES-listed or a GB invasive species of special concern. As a non-native animal it must never be released (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 14).

Sexing from about the fourth moult: females have six visible abdominal segments and males eight, adult males are slimmer with wings past the abdomen and fly readily, and females lay 5-8 egg cases (oothecae) of up to 150-200 nymphs each. Animals sold as giant Asian mantis may be Hierodula membranacea, H. patellifera or other Hierodula (the name H. grandis is often misapplied), but care is the same. Total lifespan is usually about 6-18 months: adult females live several months after the final moult and males die sooner.