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Iconic Invertebrates

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Iconic Invertebrates

current hobby invert breeders looking to build a small empire of the most alien looking iconic inver
(14)

01/09/2021

Hey Lovelies!

You may have noticed that Joel and I (Theo) have been a little quiet over the past few months. We had planned to only be on a website holiday for a month, but that month turned out to be a little while longer.

For those of you who don’t know, I got a new 9-5 about 5 months ago. Joel and I had agreed that he would continue with the inverts while I continued with my job. Unfortunately, life never goes that smoothly and about a month or so into this new way of being Joel got knocked off his bike and broke his right wrist. This was bloody awful for him meaning he couldn’t do his job teaching circus but also he couldn’t look after the inverts. This led to me being a stressed mess trying to juggle a 9-5 and looking after too many inverts along with all the other critters we keep.

With all this change, we came to the conclusion that we were at our end with Iconic Inverts. We’re very much done here however Iconic Inverts doesn’t have to die. We have parted with our little COVID project, passing it on to a great person within the community. We really hope that the future of Iconic Inverts is just as, if not more exciting than the year or so we had with it.

You’ve all been so lovely, and it was all of you that made it so much more special for us.

See ya,
Theo and Joel

05/04/2021

**INCOMING HOLIDAY**

Hey lovelies!

I (Theo) have started a new full time job, and Joel has a full week of intensive workshops next week starting 12th April. This means we will not be posting at all that week.

We will still be accepting orders as preorders for dispatch on Monday 19th. Get in your orders now if you want them before 20th April!

Theo and Joel

02/04/2021

It’s an Easter miracle… the wait is over. We finally have L3 orchids available to order from our website!

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/COMING_SOON_Orchid_Mantis_Hymenopus_coronatus/p7459081_20709963.aspx

We have struggled a little over the past months trying to get some successful hatches. It’s been something that has really played on me a little and to finally have some of these little orchids available for all you lovely peeps that have been so patient makes my heart sing!

Get over to our website quick as we only have a limited supply!

12/03/2021

Updated Availability List:

Phyllocrania Paradoxa (Ghost Mantis)
L3 - £7.50
5 x L3 - £25
10 x L3 - £40
Adult Female - £15
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Ghost_Mantis_Phyllocrania_paradoxa/p7459081_20689356.aspx

Sybilla pretiosa (Cryptic Mantis)
L4/5 - £9
5x L4/5 - £36
L5/6 - £10
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/.../p7459081_20896317.aspx

Phidippus regius (Regal Jumping Spiders)
Aprox. 5mm - £10
Aprox. 8mm - £15
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/.../p7459081_20718555.aspx

Peucetia Lucasi (Lynx Spiders)
Aprox. 5mm - £4
5x Arpox. 5mm - £15
10x Aprox. 5mm - £25
Aprox. 7mm - £6
5x Aprox. 7mm - £25
10x Aprox. 7mm - £35
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/.../p7459081_20861787.aspx

Pachnoda marginata (Sun Beetles)
Mature Beetles - £2 each
5x Mature - £7
10x Mature - £12
20x Mature - £20
Larvae (mixed) - £1 each
5x Larvae - £3.5
10 x Larvae - £6
20 x Larvae - £10
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Sun_Beetles_-_Pachnoda_marginata/p7459081_20689366.aspx

Peruphasma schultei (Black Beauty Stick Insect)
Adult - £3
Breeding Pair - £5
Trio - £7
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Black_Beauty_Stick_Insect_-_Peruphasma_schultei/p7459081_20999378.aspx

Creobroter urbanus (Malaysian Flower Mantis)
Adult Female - £10
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/.../p7459081_20709360.aspx

ProMantis™ Small Acrylic Invertebrate Enclosure (15x15x20cm) - £24.99
https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/.../p7459081_20826465.aspx

23/02/2021

BABY GHOSTS BABY GHOSTS BABY GHOSTS

I forgot how lovely these little things are. They were some of the first things we bred here at Iconic Inverts and I will forever be excited about them. These little ones will be going up on the website in the coming weeks so look out for them.

We have attempted a little line breeding this time so hopefully there will be some vibrant colours coming from this batch. We also have quite a few oothecae available so PM us for details.

12/02/2021

This is very quickly becoming a P. regius fan account 😬

I can’t help it though these guys are just so lovely. I was taking a few pics for a customer who is getting this lovely boy for their partner as a Valentine’s Day present. I feel like he’s perfect for it. His chelicerae remind me of a couple precious jewels.

26/01/2021

Updated Availability List:

Creobroter urbanus (Malaysian Flower Mantis)
L3 - £7.50
L4/5 - £8.50
L5/6 - £9.50
Sub/Presub sexed pairs - £25

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Malaysian_flower_-_Creobroter_urbanus/p7459081_20709360.aspx

Sybilla pretiosa (Cryptic Mantis)
L3 - £8
L4/5 - £9

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Cryptic_Mantis_-_Sybilla_pretiosa/p7459081_20896317.aspx

Galinthias amoena (African Flower Mantis)
L5/6 - £9.50

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/African_Flower_Mantis_-_Galinthias_amoena/p7459081_20710442.aspx

Phidippus regius (Regal Jumping Spiders)
Aprox. 7mm - £10
Aprox. 9mm - £15

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Regal_Jumping_Spider_-_Phidippus_regius/p7459081_20718555.aspx

Peucetia Lucasi (Lynx Spiders)
Aprox. 5mm - £6
4x Aprox 5mm - £20
Aprox. 9mm - £8

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Lynx_Spider_(Peucetia_Lucasi)/p7459081_20861787.aspx

ProMantis™ Micro Acrylic Invertebrate Enclosure (11x11x15cm) - £17.99

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/ProMantis__Micro_Acrylic_Invertebrate_Enclosure/p7459081_20826454.aspx

ProMantis™ Small Acrylic Invertebrate Enclosure (15x15x20cm) - £24.99

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/ProMantis__Small_Acrylic_Invertebrate_Enclosure/p7459081_20826465.aspx

09/01/2021

Our beautiful Acanthops erosula male from thistlehouse mantids has finally matured! It's a good thing too because his female has been mature for about a month now. We will be pairing the two up in the coming weeks and hopefully we will have some little Acanthops babes running around before long.

As soon as one of our Metilia males matures with full colours, we will get some comparison pics up. It's very interesting just how different the two species are even though they are within the same taxonomic family.

07/01/2021

Our little jumpers aren’t so little anymore. They're all growing up so fast!

These P. regius slings are getting closer to juveniles every second. It's amazing how they seem to gain so many more details as they grow. Their chelicerae get more and more vibrant and they gain more and more floof.

We can now clearly see all of their sets of eyes. Jumping spiders as a group all have a common eye setting. They have three fixed secondary pairs and one movable principle pair (that they use for most of their vision). These eyes allow them to see almost 360 degrees around themselves making them both good at hunting down smaller creatures and escaping from much larger species that would try to predate them.

We’ve been a little distant here for a couple months or so, and we’re sorry for that. The global pandemic, or more importantly the isolation of it has caused our already iffy mental health to be impacted. We’re both doing a little better now and hope to be a larger part of the community once again! I don’t think I realised just how much I missed this community until I came bursting back into it a week or two ago.

06/01/2021

Hey lovelies!

Unfortunately due to the frost in the coming days, we will be postponing our post till this coming Monday, 11th Jan. Any orders placed since 20th Dec will be posted then. We are really sorry for any inconvenience this causes, but it will ensure your beasties get to you safe and alive.

Hope everyone has been able to start this year as well as they can that you manage to get through this next lockdown okay.

If anyone has any questions, please let us know!

Best,
Theo and Joel

01/01/2021

Hey everyone! We hope you all had as good a Christmas and New Year as you could in the times.

We have done some thinking over the holidays and are looking to streamline our breeding plans and therefore have some excess stock. That means that we are offering some bulk pricing through facebook.

Unfortunately we aren't able to do this on our website, so all transactions must be done via Facebook messenger and paypal.

The following prices are guides and we are always happy to work out deals.

Giant Asians H. membranacea:
1 x month mature male - £10
2 x sub adult male - £10

Ghosts P. paradoxa:
2 x adult female - £10

Malaysian Flower mantis C. urbanus:
15 x sub/presub - £8 each, 5 for £30, 10 for £50
18 x L5/6 - £7 each, 5 for £30, 10 for £50
17 x L4/5 - £6 each, 5 for £25, 10 for £40
29 x L3 - £5 each, 5 for £20, 10 for £30, 20 for £50

Cryptic mantis S. Pretiosa:
25 x L4/5 - £6 each, 10 for £50, 20 for £80
8 x L3/4 - £5 each

Black beauty stick insects:
8 x Adult pairs - £8 each
All 8 pairs for £45
Ova - 10 for £4, 20 for £7

T. albopilosum Curly hair Tarantulas:
2 x Juveniles - £10
13 x 15mm slings - £3, 5 for £13, 10 for £20

Two spot Assassin bug nymphs:
50+ L3/4 nymphs - £3 each, 10 for £20, 20 for £30, 50 for £50

15/12/2020

We have new things available and just before Christmas no less!

Our cryptic babies are now available for purchase, along with our african flowers. These are both very different but equally lovely species that don't take up too much room. Head over to the website to get more info on each of the species. Get in quick too, because our last dispatch before christmas will be this Thursday 17th December.

African Flowers:

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/[COMING_SOON]_African_Flower_Mantis_-_Galinthias_amoena/p7459081_20710442.aspx

Cryptics:

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Cryptic_Mantis_-_Sybilla_pretiosa/p7459081_20896317.aspx

We will also be putting up some gift cards for sale soon too! Keep posted for details.

29/11/2020

Meet Hilda, our Hyllus diardi female. We received her recently as part of a breeding pair. I’m kinda in love with how easy it is to anthropomorphise her. Her fluttering eyelashes and big eyes, looking all floofy. Safe to say we love her. Good thing too because her partner looks like a fu***ng gorilla. Big beefy thing with no class.

Look out for updates because we will be pairing them soon!

27/11/2020

This lovely lady quietly moulted to adulthood last week. I love the morphology of the Acanthopidae females. Little duck butts. I look forward to our metilia maturing as they share the same taxonomic family.

This Acanthops erosula female is actually looking for a male. If anyone has a subadult male and would like to discuss breeding options we are all ears.

26/11/2020

We are currently running another giveaway over on Instagram!

This time the winner will receive £25 in store credit. For example, this would be enough to buy one of our ProMantis™ Micro enclosure and one of a selection of our inverts.

Follow the link to the post, or find it on our page on Instagram to see how to enter.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIBXowDM6pg/?igshid=hmlo433zna2a

23/11/2020

Lynx spiders are beautiful true spiders from madagascar. This stunning species look as if they are made of glass with markings of green, black, orange and yellow. They are ambush predators and fearless in what prey they will take on. Adults, like the one in the picture, can have a body length of about 5cm with a leg span of nearly double that.

We are now stocking 4th instar slings! These guys have a body length of approximately 1cm and are now available on our site.

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/Lynx_Spider_(Peucetia_Lucasi)/p7459081_20861787.aspx

For these slings we recommend smoothie cups or our ProMantis™️ micro enclosure - slings are generally faster and a little bit flighty and the domed smoothie cup lid makes it easier for you to feed and water your spider without disturbing it.

21/11/2020

Our three fresh ladies are looking stunning and ready to do the f**k. We have started pairing up the two older of this trio and hope to be getting some oothecae from them soon.

Unfortunately their predecessor and her ootheca aren't doing so well. The older Orchid from our previous post is slowing down, and was definitely a one and done kinda girl when it comes to oothecae. Her ootheca isn’t doing so hot either, and seems to be unfertile. We are keeping it humid and warm just in case, but currently my bet is on our younger girls being our true producers.

13/11/2020

They’re gorgeous, they’re stunning, they’re models.

I sometimes forget why I love ghosts, then look at pictures like this and remember. The variation they have in colours just interests me so much. I really wish we had a better understanding on it. Maybe one day the hobby with get some more scientific funding. It really needs it.

11/11/2020

Our stunning Metilia bolivari are now maturing to L3!

They just keep getting prettier and prettier as they age. The way that their compound eyes have camouflaged colouration just makes me fall in love with them. I’m so very excited to see these guys maturing. The sexual dimorphism in this species is so striking. We’re so very privileged to have them.

These lovelies will be available to buy in a week or so. Get onto the website to set up stock notifications to ensure you get one!

https://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/[COMING_SOON]_L3_Metilia_Bolivari_Nymph/p7459081_20797545.aspx

06/11/2020

Some of the babies are ready!

We now have a few of our Phidippus regius jumping spider slings ready for purchase from our website. These guys are now at around 7-9mm in size, however we have been feeding them up for a couple of months to ensure they are established eaters.

Another exciting thing is that we now have our own domain!

www.iconicinverts.co.uk

It's a little thing, but really exciting for us as we start building this business for ourselves. If you have the money to support us, we would absolutely love it if you could!

03/11/2020

We now have enclosures on our site! The ProMantis units are just stunning and so sleek while also being terribly practical. They have both top and front openings to allow for easy access, cleaning and rearranging. We set up one of each of our new enclosures for a couple of our lovelies that needed an upgrade.

We put our Phidippus apacheanus in the smaller 10x10x15cm enclosure. This unit is perfect for a growing jumping spider. The top has a lovely sized lip, so even if the spider does decide to set up a hammock on the top, there's a very low chance that it will inhibit your ability to remove the top lid!

In the larger 15x15x20cm enclosure we have put our breeding group of Emerald roaches (Pseudoglomeris magnifica). These guys are doing so well, and the female in the video is actually carrying her young on her undercarriage! I didn't want to mess with her after moving her, so couldn't get a decent pic! If I manage to catch her with them on show, I will no doubt share them on here!

We have done a trial of these enclosures to see how they do, so only have a limited supply available. We currently only have 6 of the 15x15x20cm enclosures left to give you some perspective, so get in quick!

02/11/2020

Our girl is all grown up!

This is the first adult of our second gen of ghosts. She’s a stunner, with a light green-brown body and lovely dark tan wing casings. We hope to breed her with a lovely light boy to try and get some very light babies.

I love getting up close with my macro with the older, larger mantids. It really allows you to see up close, the fine details. The fact you can see her ocelli so vividly, and can catch a glimpse of the compound structure of her eyes. Just so stunning to capture.

We are on the lookout for adult males to trade or buy to get some new genetics in the mix. Let us know if you have any available.

25/10/2020

Our first brood of C. urbanus are ready to purchase! They’re now at L3 so we are happy enough in their hardiness to let them leave the nest. If you would like to purchase, either message through here or head over to the website.

If you want to learn more about these absolute cuties, we have a page dedicated to their care on our website that’s ready to read.

We only have a few of these guys available right now, so get in quick!

19/10/2020

This spiny is such a little character. She’s always doing something interesting when I get her out.

I really need to read up on these ‘test flights’. I have a feeling it’s something to do with testing out or warming up the muscles used for flight. I would love to know more about it.

Mantids muscles are super interesting. Some of the smallest of their muscle fibres are just a single cell. Hopefully she’ll get to use some fun ones when her mate gets here this week.

18/10/2020

The genus Metilia is a rarely seen in the UK and Metilia Bolivari may have never been here in the UK before. The species is a member of the family Acanthopidae native to Peru. This family includes the genus Acanthops and these Metilia can be kept in a very similar way. This is due to the fact they come from regions with very similar climate.

This species displays significant sexual dimorphism meaning the males and females look very different adults. The males mature to have beautiful leaflike wings which perfectly camouflage them in their natural environment and make them great flyers. The females however (similarity to other Acathopidae) keep the upturned abdomen which most mantids exhibit as nymphs and have stunted wings that don’t allow for flight. Both sexes of the species are stunning dead/dying leaf mimics with the females being a mix of brown and red and the males having some green and even yellow-orange accents.

This species can be a very interesting and rare addition to any collection. These guys only hatched a few days ago and won’t be available until L3 in about a month. Head over to our website to sign up for notifications for when they go live!

17/10/2020

Our lovely Davus pentaloris posed so nicely for this picture. I took around 100 photos in this shoot and only had this one good one out of it, but we won't talk about that.

We are creeping closer and closer to the spookiest of seasons, and I feel that showing a few more of our Ts is very much a must. Especially Ts that fit so nicely into the halloween aesthetic. was a huge inspiration for this. Bitch better be proud 😂

15/10/2020

Finally caught an ootheca lay from start to finish!

An ootheca is simply a mass of eggs covered by some form of protective layer laid by a range of insects including most roaches and all mantids. The word is split up into the sound oo- meaning egg from the Latin word o**m and -theca meaning cover or container.

So very exciting to be able to see the process in completion. I’m annoyed I didn’t manage to get a better shot but it gives you an idea of the laying process. For context this video is almost exactly an hour of footage.

13/10/2020

The first brood of Malaysian flowers (Creobroter urbanus) are now all at L2!

I just love when mantids are at this stage. They seem to be so much more intrigued and engaged with the world. This little one got engrossed by She-Ra which we were watching on the TV. Just look at those massive antennae go! They are about as big as the damn mantis.

These guys will be available to buy in the coming weeks. Get in touch to be on our waitlist.

12/10/2020

Look at this beautiful pair of thistles (B. mendic). This lovely lady has been adult for just over a week, so we will wait a couple more before we pair these two off.

This picture really shows you the sexual dimorphism in the species. Their antennae are so very different. The males’ are feathery and specially suited to receive the pheromones given out by the lady. I’m looking forward to seeing how he reacts when she starts calling. I wonder how it compares to our other species.

Address

London

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 6pm
Tuesday	9am - 6pm
Wednesday	9am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 6pm
Friday	9am - 6pm
Saturday	9am - 6pm

Website

http://www.iconicinverts.co.uk/

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