Parablepharis kuhlii asiatica

Description

Fairly rare species in the hobby.  One of the coolest looking species I have kept.  They do not always hold their arms in the traditional “praying” fashion, but often outstretched with one arm completely extended.  I thought it was perhaps an issue with one of my nymphs until I noticed just about all of them do it.  They also seem to prefer crawling prey as well, which is odd for mantid species.  My first breeding season yielded low results as I was not able to get many pairs to adult and once adult they did not eat as well as I had hoped.  I ended up with 1 fertile ooth.  I was tipped off by a buddy of mine who mentioned he feeds them locusts.  I do not have access to those, however crickets seemed to do the job.  Of course, roaches were my next test and they seemed to love them even more.  This is the only species I have ever kept that prefers roaches over flies.  These are L3 to 4.