Welcome to Part 14 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series, where I navigate the unpredictable and thrilling courtship of praying mantises in Pantdora, culminating in an unexpected crisis that reshapes our rainforest ecosystem.

In my giant cloud rainforest vivarium (Pantdora), I attempted the dangerous task of setting up the stage for two adult praying mantises to breed, in hopes to secure a future generation of praying mantis babies for Pantdora’s rainforest ecosystem. The entire mantis courtship process was a nail-biting journey with a result I didn’t expect. But after it all, I ended up with the biggest crisis in the history of Pantdora. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode, Part 14 of my Ecosystem Vivarium Series.

A Mantis Mating Disaster & Crisis in My Giant Rainforest Vivarium

Welcome to Pantdora, my 1000 gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, home to a tropical ecosystem within glass that grows more and more beautiful, complex, and biodiverse with each passing day.

But one of the top predators in the ecosystem is the Green Reaper, this beautiful praying mantis, who is so fat right now and can hardly breathe, and you’re about to find out why. I must say, it’s been the craziest 24 hrs, that I actually haven’t been able to sleep. When you guys see what happened, you’ll understand why I call it the biggest crisis in the history of Pantdora. It all started yesterday with the introduction of our Green Reaper’s suitor.

My, my! Well, what have we here? Why hello, my Grey Reaper. So nice to see you. I’ve been awaiting your arrival for a very long time. Welcome to Pantdora! I have someone special I’d love to introduce you to. Meet your ultimate fate: the Green Reaper.

Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family. Enjoy!

When I first approached the vivarium with our Grey Reaper in hand, our Green Reaper immediately took notice through the glass, and when I actually placed him in and closed the door, I had no idea that it would be the start of the craziest showdown I had ever seen. At first, our Grey Reaper didn’t realize that he was being watched by someone twice his size up high in the canopy. I wondered what was going through her mind. Did she like him? Did he pass her standards? I hoped she wasn’t looking at him like food. The night before, as we saw in the last episode, she had devoured an entire roach, so I assumed she wasn’t thinking about eating him, or at least I hoped. I had also fed the male some crickets before adding him in here, just for extra precaution so he too wouldn’t have cannibalism on his mind, whenever the two mantises did meet.

I watched wide-eyed at the female staring down at the male, as I waited for one of them to make a first move. I wondered if the Grey Reaper could smell our female’s pheromones in the air, and judging from his increased breathing, I bet he did. They stood like this for a very long time, about half an hour, with the male still not noticing the female. He didn’t know it yet, but he was in for the biggest test of his life. I would keep my eye on the two, but meanwhile, I caught sight of something very concerning nearby.

In the pitcher plants, the Dark Horde, the invasive black crazy ant colony we’ve been working on controlling, was still stationed in hiding. The queens looked around knowing full well that their mission was to bring their once powerful colony back to glory. Their presence here in the plant was already beginning to rot the pitcher plants’ new leaves due to all the lethal ant poop the Dark Horde was producing, which was toxic to pitcher plants. Knowing the black crazy ants were squatting and pooping in its soils, the pitcher plant was rushing to send out new pitchers, to hopefully trap the black crazy ants like it had been doing so far with its one pitcher that consumed a lot of black crazy ants in its time around. I hoped the Dark Horde would move out of here soon, but little did I know, another organism would be showing up here soon at this very Dark Horde camp, that would take full advantage of these black crazy ants overstaying their welcome.

Another ant species caught my eye, and when I spotted them, I chuckled. If it wasn’t our menace to Pantdoran society, the acrobat ants were racing across the glass and forest floor in their usual threat pose. This ant was in a rush, and as I followed it, I saw what it was so excited about.

I yelled when I spotted the sight. Yay! See it? The acrobat ant had found a plant insect and was milking it for honeydew. In case you’re new to this behaviour, plant insects, which are essentially plant parasites that suck the juices from the plants’ leaves and stems, create a sweet byproduct called honeydew, which you’re about to see in a second. The ants stroke the plant insects, kind of like milking a cow, then drink the delicious sweet honeydew that squirts out. I was happy the acrobat ants discovered the plant insects first and not the black crazy ants.

When the ant moved on to drink from other plant insects, I was able to get a better look at the ant cow it was milking. This was what was called a scale insect. Now watch the acrobat ant. It begins to stroke the scale insect with its antennae gently. This tickles the scale insect, which soon causes it to extrude a little tube that squirts out the sweet honeydew which the ant relishes. Pretty neat huh? The ant will continue to do this over and over again until it is full and can bring the nutritious honeydew back to the colony. For many ant species, honeydew makes up a great portion of their diet, and many ants will protect these insects like a personal herds of cows. I was happy our acrobat ants had discovered the plant insects as a food source. But as far as the parasitic plant insects go, things were starting to get a bit out of control. Have a look at this!

See all those white fluffy things that look like snow? Those are mealybugs, another type of plant insect. They look like wool on the asparagus ferns. Up close, they look like this. Now these plant insects also produce honeydew, but it seems the ants haven’t really discovered them as a honeydew source yet. They look pretty cool but they do reproduce really quickly, and they needed to be controlled. So my solution was this mealybug assassin.

She’s a lady beetle, whose diet consists of plant insects like the mealybugs. I released her into Pantdora and she instantly flew away. I hoped she would survive and help control the quickly spreading mealybugs.

The Grey Reaper was breathing hard. Do you think he could feel he was being watched? He surely could smell the female’s pheromones in the air. Perhaps he too was releasing pheromones that was putting our Green Reaper under a charm spell.

Soon I noticed our Green Reaper was also breathing hard, and that was when he noticed. For the first time, our two mantises were locking eyes on each other. He instantly began to sway. I was honestly so scared for him, and I wondered what could possibly be going through his mind right now. This was actually the very first time I’d ever seen the praying mantis courtship or mating ritual. One thing’s for sure, that Green Reaper stare was terrifying!

He stood still. What on Earth would happen next? Who would make the first move? And then something really unexpected happened. Movement of the Spanish moss. The Green Reaper began to minutely wobble the spanish moss on which she hung. The Grey reaper watched, seemingly mesmerised by the movement. What was our male going to do in response?

I watched as she continued to wobble the moss. The Grey Reaper was breathing hard now, and to my utter surprise, he pooped. Oh! Guess she literally scared the crap out of him, and then, in an unexpected turn of events, the Grey Reaper began to move away from his place, in a direction away from the female. What? I think him moving away was a surprise move to the female, as well. He clearly just wanted to get out of there. I guessed that perhaps he didn’t feel it was the right time to breed with her and decided to bail, but this rejection moment was clearly affecting our Green Reaper. Judging from her demeanour, she was either feeling heart broken or mad. Either way, it was then that I realized that this mantis mating process was going to be much more complicated than I thought.

I then caught sight of someone up on the Hallelujah Tree Stump. It was our resident sun skink. He’s so beautiful! I believe him to be full grown now, and I often marvel at the new shape of his body, the speckles on the side of his body, and how he just lounges around knowing full well that he runs the rainforest, as the apex predator. By the way, guys, he still needs a name? Let me know your name suggestions for our golden dragon here! I’m also looking for a female to pair him with so we could one day have a nice family of sun skinks running around the forest. I spotted him looking at something flying all around him. He wanted to eat it! When I saw it land, I discovered it was Pantdora’s damselfly. She was so gorgeous. Look at her. Her face was so pretty, and actually looked like an elegant lady. No wonder they call them damselflies. I loved her colour! We actually watched her grow up since she was just a little nymph in the waters. Now, I was always sad that she was the only damselfly flying around here in the rainforest, but that was until I spotted this. AC Family, you will love this!

Into the blackwater pond, we go. And there it was! I spotted another damselfly nymph, or at least it looked like one. Any of you care to verify if we could expect another damselfly on the way? It was quite large, just under an inch long. These nymphs are carnivorous, and I knew that it was enjoying all the new baby fish that were swimming in the waters.

Speaking of baby fish, there were so many guppies now, and the adult females were huge with more fish on the way. I estimated that there were about 30 or more fish in these waters now, but I did catch the adults eating their own babies, so I wasn’t too worried about population control, plus there was the damselfly nymph also preying on the fish. It was great to see our aquatic ecosystem doing so well and developing.

Sadly, I couldn’t see any more shrimp. Guess the waters had grown unideal for them with all the fish dirtying up the environment, as shrimp require pretty pristine nitrogen-deficient waters. The crabs however were still thriving and doing well, and so were these. Look! All the dirty pond water was a literal feast for the vines, who had their roots dipped into the pond eating up the toxic nitrogen and turning it into the most beautiful of leaves. Vines were now sprouting up into the canopy even against the top mesh. I couldn’t wait for the canopy to just be full of these green vine leaves!

I looked back at our Green Reaper and she was still staring down at the male who was standing completely still now. It was then that I noticed how shiny and iridescent the male’s wings were. See it? He had the most beautiful metallic sheen to his back. I wondered if this iridescent shine looked attractive to the females, perhaps reflecting wavelengths of light that the female mantises could really see well. I really wanted our male to be her knight in shining armour, but I wasn’t going to rush this process and allow him to do his thing.

The female attempted the swaying technique in attempts to get his attention, but he had no reaction to her attention-seeking tactics. She then started to shake the spanish moss harder which eventually caused the asparagus fern he was on which touched the moss, to also shake. After several minutes of vigorous shaking, to my surprise, she turned away. What? Guess she lost interest in him, as I watched her make her way up the spanish moss. And then the cutest thing… She looked back to check on him. He was still not moving. She continued up again and then.. “Are you sure you’re not coming?”

He definitely wasn’t going to pursue. She proceeded up the moss further. “Are you sure?” looking back a third time. Nope, not moving. And hilariously, a fourth time. “You sure?” Crickets. And a fifth time, just in case. “Are you sure?!” The whole time our Grey Reaper was not willing to budge and just stood there breathing hard. She looked at him one sixth and final time before proceeding on her way in the opposite direction high up in the canopy. I couldn’t believe this arranged mantis marriage was not really working out as easily as I thought. I figured breeding the mantises would be a lot easier, but I guess not. Poor Green Mantis. I suspect she was totally willing. Grey Reaper, what gives? Come on, bro?!

It seemed like an ordinary beautiful night in Pantdora as the nightly mists filled the land. I always felt Pantdora had a totally different vibe and spirit at night, and indeed the team of Pantdoran night life was different from that of the day. The male was surprisingly still in the same spot as he was hours earlier, still unmoving. The Green Reaper had stationed herself far away under a vine and was fast asleep.

At ground level, I spotted one of the house geckoes. Such cool toes that help them stick to the glass. Gecko toe pads are equipped with microscopic hook-like cells called adhesive lamellae which allow the geckoes to stick onto the glass. We saw in the last episode that at least one of the geckoes was pregnant with eggs. I couldn’t wait to finally see baby geckoes running around. Rocksteady, our resident rhino beetle was on the move, probably looking for a female to breed with, and indeed, I’m looking for a female for him. The Terra Raiders, our marauder ants were busy foraging for food.

Up on the glass, I was surprised to see this. A huntsman spider, and it was pretty big! Look at the size of it compared to my finger. Don’t worry, though, this was not one of the baby huntsmen released in the last episode. This was a juvenile huntsman, I released way back in Part 6 during the legacy GAIA Event. The 400 or so baby huntsmen from the last episode, were still small, but slightly larger than last week. I hoped at least some of them would survive into adulthood, but I knew it would be a long journey for them to reach their full size, assuming they manage to escape being preyed upon. Speaking of adult huntsman spiders, their giant beastly mother, Lady Death Strike would be added to Pantdora once the mantises finished mating, a precautionary measure in case she would want to prey on the male mantis before doing his deed.

I spotted a jumping spider sleeping in its silken burrow in the stump, and Stanley, our bush cricket up high in the canopy looking for leaves to chew on. The roaches were also out and about looking for edible matter to feast upon. I spotted the tree frogs awake and ready to begin their night’s hunt. Hi, Kermit! Of all the tree frogs, Kermit was definitely my favourite. I don’t know when their breeding season starts, but I couldn’t wait for him to mate with Miss Piggy. I’ll know it’s tree frog breeding season once Kermit here starts singing at night.

But with all the nightly regulars I spotted, this night was different from the rest. Some new lifeforms were making an appearance. Under the stump, I spotted these. Mushrooms! Look at that fuzzy mycelium! They kinda looked like oyster mushrooms. Anyone care to identify them? I also spotted these cute mushrooms at the foot of the stump, and ready for this guys? These mushrooms! They were growing from the pitcher plants! How awesome to see them here! They had these cute cone-shaped caps that looked like Asian hats. It was then that I realized how brilliant it was that the mushrooms sprouted on this night. Do you think the fungus knew the black crazy ants were parked here? These mushroom caps were surely sending out its spores now, especially when it rained, which would then fall onto every member of the Dark Horde, and the ants would then thereby assist in spreading its spores to new areas of the rainforest whenever they moved out. What was even more cool was that the fungus was probably feeding on the poop and nutrients that the ants were leaving behind in the soils, in order to erect these overnight mushrooms, thereby saving our pitcher plants from dying from ant poop poisoning. How neat it was to see how the story of these three organisms: the ants, the pitcher plants, and the fungus, played out to everyone’s benefit.

As the sun rose to greet a new day, the frogs headed up in the canopy to prepare for sleep high up in the vines. My eyes looked over at the Green Reaper who was still asleep, but I freaked out when I spotted this. Our male Grey Reaper was climbing the spanish moss with his eyes locked right at the Green Reaper. OMG! I think he was going to make his move. He was totally going to pursue her. Finally, this was the big day! I wondered if prior to this, he felt she wasn’t in the right position. Perhaps the tactic is to sort of stalk her and surprise her from behind? But he was so slow making his approach. 1 hour later, he was up on the asparagus fern. Then an hour after that, he was on the screen mesh making his approach. Oh, he was getting closer. She was just waking up now from her slumber. But then, something unexpected, an hour later, I spotted our Green Reaper facing our male who was stationed up high on the mesh not moving.

Oh my! This was the showdown of the century, the moment of truth. My heart began to race as I watched our Green Reaper and our Grey Reaper staring at each other. The female seemed receptive now and very interested in the Grey Reaper. What type of interest, however, was the ultimate question. The suspense was killing me! I would hate to be the male under so much pressure right now, but the drive to mate was strong. Now he had one advantage over the female, in that he was capable of flight, while she was more of a jumper, and not a flyer. But look at that glare! But then I noticed something that completely freaked me out even more. Our male didn’t seem to notice yet, but the Green Reaper was slowly inching her way closer to him. Look at that foot moving ever so slowly, micromillimeter by micromillimeter. The male began breathing fast, or possibly releasing more pheromones. The female had both front legs reaching forward now. The male began wobbling. OMG she was so close now! She was still hyper focused on him, and suddenly a worrying feeling of fear hit the pit of my stomach. The male suddenly made the decision to turn away from the Green Reaper and abandon the operation, as she inched closer and closer. No! He looked over his shoulder and noticed she was getting closer so he froze in his tracks. I screamed as the Green Reaper came within striking distance of the male, who was now acting without thought and wobbling his way away. Fly! Fly now! There was nothing I could do but watch as the Green Reaper made her approach. It was moments like this where I wondered if I should intervene, but would that be compromising what this ecosystem project was about? Should I let nature take its course? Perhaps this was part of the mating ritual? As a spectator, the suspense was unbelievable, and I watched as the space between the two mantises began to close. I shut my eyes and said a little prayer for the Grey Reaper, and when I opened my eyes… The Green Reaper had striked and in a flurry of arms and spikes, I watched in horror as the Green Reaper began to feast on the male. She chewed happily into one of his arms, then moved on to devouring his torso, as he tried desperately to stop her with his other arm. But there was no saving him now. She bit into his heart and I watched in sheer terror and sadness as our Grey Reaper met the end of his life in failure to breed and fulfil his ultimate destiny of passing on his genes. “He sucked! Try again, Creator of Worlds!” she said as she continued to feast on him. This was all very sad that our mating attempt didn’t work out, but the biggest surprise of all was coming later that day.

Our Green Reaper had finished her meal and was now so fat! But the Terra Raiders were shouting in delight! The greatest news had reached the colony and workers were scrambling to get to the scene. Mantis guts lay on the leaves, and leftover body parts littered the ferns below, marking the fall of a great knight. The Terra Raiders were on site ready to take the home feast of leftover Grey Mantis body parts! At least, the Terra Raiders were benefiting from our Grey Reaper’s death. Some black crazy ants had found a stray arm, which I wasn’t too happy about at first, but later I discovered was wrestled away from them by the Terra Raiders, who were now taking it and all body parts home. Happy to know that at least, the Terra Raiders now had the upper hand at competing with the Dark Horde. This was actually not only a win for the Terra Raiders, but also one for all of Pantdora.

I began to think about the Grey Reaper. His death had affected me deeply, but as I watched the Terra Raiders parade their newly collected food back to the nest, in complete joy and excitement, I began to consider that at least the Grey Reaper’s death didn’t go in vain. The Grey Reaper’s leftover body parts meant food for all these ants. I even spotted the acrobat ants enjoying the guts. The Green Reaper, herself, was now fat with him in her belly, which in nature might have actually helped her in the event that she does successfully get fertilized by her next suitor. I suspected that mantis cannibalism like this was not something out of the ordinary, and maybe even had a purpose.

Perhaps the temperature wasn’t right in Pantdora, or the landscape wasn’t right, perhaps she was still hungry, or maybe some other environmental condition wasn’t met in order for the mantises to successfully breed. If the foliage was a bit more dense, maybe the Grey Reaper could have done a better job at sneaking up on the female. Maybe if the temperature in Pantdora was ideal, the female would’ve been in a better mood to mate, or if she ate more prey she wouldn’t have eaten the male. I didn’t know, but perhaps the female ultimately eating the male had an actual purpose in nature. I began to imagine what it would be like for the babies had the mating been successful. If baby mantises were born in Pantdora but temperatures were too hot or too cold, maybe they wouldn’t thrive. If the vegetation of the area wasn’t bushy enough, perhaps the baby mantises wouldn’t have enough places to hide from predators once hatched. If Pantdora was lacking in the prey department, then the baby mantises might be born into an environment lacking an ample amount of food. I began to consider that perhaps the mantises’ mating failure might not necessarily be a bad outcome, but instead perhaps a necessary one. Nature has an intelligence and a way to ensure life persists and thrives. I began to consider that perhaps the Green Reaper’s reaction to the male was in fact, Pandora’s reaction to the male, deciding that the Grey Reaper would be more beneficial to the system as food, than as an agent for the replication of more mantises. I also considered the possibility that maybe the Grey Reaper didn’t have the secret sauce, the right genes, health status, or knack for survival that would ensure the best and strongest offspring, hence leading to the Green Reaper saying no and eating him. I realized that when Nature is allowed to run its course, there are no mistakes, and it probably wasn’t the Green Reaper’s moment to breed. I resolved to try again as soon as I found another male for her, and hopefully then, the conditions in Pantdora will be just right to welcome some new mantises to the rainforest.

But meanwhile, I had an adult huntsman spider named Lady Deathstrike, that I promised I’d be releasing into Pantdora. If we ever find a male mantis again, I’ll make sure to only add him in, if she’s well fed or I’ll take our Green Reaper out and mate them in a separate space. I opened the huntsman’s container and left it there for Lady Deathstrike to come out on her own time. I left Pantdora to be for the rest of the day.

And now for the reason of the huge crisis I was talking about at the start of the video, and though the whole failed mantis breeding was sad, it wasn’t the reason for my previously mentioned insomnia.

Vote in my COMMUNITY TAB to affect this story!