Praying Mantis

I was trying to find out a bit more about praying mantis'. Basicly life span, how hard they are to keep. How big of a tank they need. What kinds their are. From what I have foudn online their isn't much on that stuff.. That I have found as of yet, atleast.

there are thousands of species and they all differ. personally i find the peacock mantis (Pseudempusa pinnapavonis) very easy to keep and beautiful when mature although there are lots of others that are easy like the chinese mantis. you can normally buy them on ebay, either an egg case or some babies.
age wise i had a male peacock mantis which survived a bit over a year which is pretty impressive but they are usually less so you best get a few and try to breed them.

I may look into that. Breeding is actually something I would really want to do, for scorpions and mantis's.

Edit: The guy I found on craigslist has chinese mantis's two for 10$.

hmm... seems a bit much... i would try to get more for that price and not a mature breeding pair because they probably only have a few days left. look for an ootheca (egg case) of a chinese mantis which should contain thousands of them and shouldn't cost much because i think chinese mantids are found in the US quite commonly.

here is a site that sells all kinds of mantids, ooths and supplies needed to care for them
http://www.mantisplace.com/index.htm

Try Iris oratoria.

its a fun species

Hello!

Here's a forum for mantids. They're my favorite insects by far.

And the sizes range due to the amount of species there are.
Here's the official forum full of info and pics of different species

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?act=idx

I personally suggest a communal species like the Paraguayan mantis. Classic mantis looks and can be kept together .