I caught a mantid, I think a European mantis, and thought I'd keep it for a week for my daughter and I to feed and observe before releasing it.

We put it in a large butterfly tent enclosure with a dish of soil, and some branches and the mantis promptly climbed up the wall and spends all of it's time hanging upside down on the mesh roof. The enclosure we're using is like one of these ones:

http://stores.mgfx.com/edsciencestore/merchant.ihtml?pid=6579&step=4&merchantid=4&repid=0&passwordstatus=passed

I would have expected the mantis to prefer to hide out in the branches, but instead it spends all of it's time pacing about the top of the enclosure. Is a strong instinct to climb a particular indication of a phase of life? Should we release it soon because it's looking to fly away and find a mate? I caught the thing flying around a parking lot. I was intrigued because it sure didn't fly like a grasshopper so I went to see it.

How often should I be feeding it? I put in a large moth yesterday and it ate it down to the wings pretty fast. Today it's got a large grasshopper companion, also climbing about the enclosure, and the mantis doesn't seem to be going for it or two small moths also in there. Do mantids have very voracious appetites?

I poured a couple teaspoons of water onto the top of the enclosure which hung down as large drops which the mantid drank from for awhile.