The Spoils of War

Ok so as promised here are my purchases from the AES :D
first off are the leafies Phyllium siccifolium for all you geeks :D
ive kept leaf insects before but never this species but paying £10 for 8 (when they usually go for £4 each (trade price) you can't be too picky, so i snatched up these bad boy's (and girls)

as you can see they are a nice size and as i have a few friends within the 'animal show' sector im planning to breed some and flog them to make some cash :D leaf insects generally go quite quickly as they are uber desirable within collections and who can blame collectors for wanting them?
This lot are a bit battered (even if I exclude the one that lost a limb yesterday when she decided to shed in transit- she will be fine, it will grow back in her next shed :D ) i imagine these critters (wow that sounds really American)  were probably kept in high densities and when that happens they tend not to differentiate between food (i.e leaves) and each other, and it is for this reason that you should never keep leaf insect species with other stick insects ;)


My Favourites however are my Deroplatys dessicata (Dead leaf mantis) ive kept these before and they are gorgeous however i sold them before they reached adulthood :(
they are only little at the moment but adult females are pretty damned bulky and im planning to have one free range in the front room (its almost a tradition in our house) 
here are the little fella's :D

in the last pic you can really see the shape of the protonum (the back bit behind its head) and as they mature it becomes more pronounced and arrow shaped in this species (this is why i love them... i cant wait till their markings appear on the inside of their 'arms' 
like this one:D

(old skool picture)
they have all been fed and put to bed now :D so they have no chance of eating one another 

lets hope they don't cark it on me ...i'd be gutted