# Weirdest thing - parthenogenic Miomantis Paykulii ???



## cloud jaguar (Jul 15, 2009)

My wife has a beautiful Egyptian Pygmi mantis "Mary" which she received from Rebecca (Mantisplace.com) as a 'mystery mantis.' She is a nice papyrus color and very healthy. When we received her as L3 we had some adults from another brood that were highly cannibalistic and seemed to tear each other badly when they mated. Of this set, most laid odd small misshapen ooths of which a total of 10 egyptians hatched - 3 are still alive as L3s.

Her mantis, which she recently named "Mary" was never mated with any of the adult males from the previous brood even though she reached maturity. We had considered mating her but declined given the extreme cannibalistic proclivities and violent mating practice of the other brood which seemed to result in the female's abdomens being perforated - they leaked goo for a couple of weeks then died  . So Mary was never mated or even housed with any other Egyptian - male or female. She has always lived in a 32 oz deli cup alone.

She laid two beautiful and large ooths - we never moistened the ooths and they just received a bit of incidental spray from her infrequent mistings. We thought it sad that she tried so hard to make really nice oothecae only to have them be infertile.

Today i just noticed that one of the ooths - a couple of months old - is HATCHING! My wife and I are 100% certain that iMary was never housed with another mantis so it absolutely could not have mated.

As far as i know, only Brunners Mantis is parthenogenic. Unless this mantis was fertilized magically, fertilized by airborne sperm, immaculately conceived, or is parthenogenic - it is physically impossible that she could be fertile yet the nymphs are hatching as i speak.

Very odd. :huh:


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## ABbuggin (Jul 15, 2009)

It is interesting. The Brunner is the only 100% asexual mantis, but there are a few species (don't remember which at the moment) out there that are "somewhat" and on rare occasions asexual.


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## hibiscusmile (Jul 15, 2009)

Beats me !


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## kamakiri (Jul 15, 2009)

Interesting! Please keep us updated on the nymphs.


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## idolomantis (Jul 15, 2009)

It's possible on Miomantis spp


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## cloud jaguar (Jul 15, 2009)

only 3 hatched so far - a fourth was stuck and died. I moistened the ooths somewhat so I hope more hatch out since it is a 1" long ooth!

I dont recall if they all hatch out at once or staggered with Egyptian Pygmies - anyone know? Thanks idolo for letting us know that Miomantis spp have been known to be parthenogenic - that explains a lot. Still kind of odd to experience


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## hibiscusmile (Jul 15, 2009)

huh! I didnt know about that, funny, I asked the girls and they all just looked at me. :huh:


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## PhilinYuma (Jul 15, 2009)

Yeah, as Idolo says, several spp of Miomantis, including M. paykulii and M. savignii practice "sporadic" parthenogenesis. It will be interesting to discover whether the offspring are all female, male or both. It is also worth noting that your's is not the first Mary to have given "virgin" birth!


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## idolomantis (Jul 15, 2009)

all female.


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## revmdn (Jul 15, 2009)

Very interesting.


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## Orin (Jul 16, 2009)

It's rare but reportedly possible for Miomantis and a few others. It would be great to grow up the offspring to see if they could produce infertile oothecae with better hatch rates.


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## yen_saw (Jul 16, 2009)

Arkanis said:


> ......fertilized magically, fertilized by airborne sperm......


Would be so nice if female can conceive that way  we don't have to risk the male anymore!

Would be interested to see if the three are all females.


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## cloud jaguar (Aug 7, 2009)

Update - 1 nymph died and one was eaten. The survivor is L3 i think and doing fine. Today I cracked open the ooth from which these 3 hatched and found that 99% of the eggs in there appear unfertilized and did not develop into mantids. Initially I assumed they were all fertilized and just did not hatch because of poor watering but apparently they were just unfertilized eggs - weird


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