Ghost Mantis — Fact Sheet

Phyllocrania paradoxa · Ghost Mantis

📋 At a glance

🏠 Enclosure

• Keep one mantis in a ventilated 20 × 20 × 30 cm enclosure.
• Communal keeping is sometimes successful, but cannibalism remains possible, especially during molts.
• Small nymphs need smaller escape-proof containers where flies remain easy to find.

🪨 Enclosure furniture

• Fit a grippable ceiling and secure fine branches.
• Leave at least two body lengths of clear space beneath the molting perch, with total enclosure height at least three body lengths.
• Use paper or 2–3 cm of clean coir below; remove waste and mold promptly.

💡 Lighting

• Provide about 12 hours of diffuse visible light and a dark night.
• UVB is not an established requirement.
• Keep the enclosure away from direct sunlight: even a small lamp can overheat a plastic cup.

🌡️ Temperature

• Aim for 22–26°C during the day and 18–22°C at night.
• These are practical maintenance ranges, not experimentally determined survival limits.
• If extra heat is needed, use a thermostatically controlled source outside one side of the enclosure and measure at the upper perch.
• Never heat the entire cup without an escape from the warmth.

💧 Humidity & water

• Use 60–80% relative humidity as a working range, with cross-ventilation and intervals when leaves dry.
• Mist a wall or leaves lightly to provide drinking droplets; do not spray the animal or saturate its hanging site.
• Condensation that persists all day calls for more ventilation.
• A water bowl is unnecessary for nymphs.

🪳 Diet

Staple foods — follow the feeding schedule:

• Offer fruit flies to small nymphs and appropriately sized flies to larger animals.
• Our Drosophila hydei guide covers culturing a useful starter prey.
• Feed growing nymphs every 1–2 days and larger mantises approximately every 2–3 days, adjusting to abdomen fullness.
• Remove uneaten biting prey before a molt.

In moderation:

• Adjust prey quantity to abdominal fullness and stop feeding during a molt.

Avoid:

• Pesticide-contaminated food, spoiled leftovers and unverified wild-collected foods.

Supplements:

• Do not dust insects with reptile supplements or use insects exposed to pesticides.

🩺 Health — warning signs

• A swollen abdomen followed by refusal to eat may precede a molt; stop offering prey and do not pull the mantis from its perch.
• Failed molts, inability to grip, dark leaking injuries or persistent weakness need assessment by an invertebrate-experienced veterinarian.
• Check recent sprays, prey origin, heat and ventilation.
• Do not attempt to peel off old skin or force-feed a collapsed animal.