# Hymenopus coronatus



## Ranitomeya (Oct 1, 2015)

My second attempt at keeping Hymenopus coronatus. The previous attempt didn't go too well when most of mine died in the care of my friend while I had to go out of town for a month.

2nd Instar after unpacking




Molted to 3rd instar 4 days later.




Molted to 4th instar 9 days after unpacking





Molted to 5th instar 17 days after unpacking





Molted to 6th instar 25 days after unpacking




The females are all fifth and sixth instars and the males are still fourth instars. They've all been fed almost exclusively on cockroaches that are fed on a diet of assorted fruits and pollen mixed with sugar water.


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## dmina (Oct 1, 2015)

Oh my... they are really growing fast... You must have some yummy roaches there! great job.. Thanks for sharing..


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 1, 2015)

I definitely don't remember the ones I kept previously growing this quickly, but they were fed on hydei fruit flies until their fifth instar. I'm willing to guess that fruit flies aren't the most nutritious since I remember quite a lot more poop being expelled for my previous orchids while these ones barely poop at all on a diet of very well-fed roaches.


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## Brunneria (Oct 1, 2015)

They look beautiful! Love the colors on these


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 9, 2015)

7th instar 36 days after unpacking. It's the freshly molted individual with small amounts of pink on the right. Also in the picture is a 6th instar with yellow coloration on the left and a plain white one on the bottom for comparison.


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## dmina (Oct 20, 2015)

They are beautiful.. One of my favorites... my girl thought she was a bada$$...





I hope you don't mind me posting her here... but I hope it gives you something to look forward to...


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 21, 2015)

That's one big mayfly!


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## Ghost_Keeper (Oct 21, 2015)

I always bring my exotic pets with me on trips so they don't get killed by my friends / family


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## dmina (Oct 22, 2015)

Ranitomeya said:


> That's one big mayfly!


Yes, it was...( I also think it was the angle, I took the pic) but she took care of it quickly! LOL


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 22, 2015)

Unfortunately, I was going on a trip to another country. Taking them with me was not an option and I did still end up with an adult pair. The female ended up dying to an unknown infection before she laid an ootheca. I suspect it was due to my less hygenic feeder-keeping practices at the time.


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## Sticky (Oct 22, 2015)

That would be an interesting calendar picture!


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 22, 2015)

Eighth instar, subadult 49 days after unpacking. They've been kept in 5.5 oz cups, but I'll be moving them to 32 oz cups as they all molt to 8th instars. I already moved this one in anticipation of a molt since their last molts already had them touching the bottoms of their 5.5 oz cups.


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## ethanblaze1017 (Oct 22, 2015)

Keep us updated on that molt to adult man! Can't believe how fast they've grown. Truly incredible.


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 28, 2015)

Subadult pair. The male's getting swollen wing buds and should be molting into an adult some time this week.




The female went ahead and pooped when I took this photo.





This male's gotten some nice reddish pink coloration on his legs. The transparent fringe on the lobes of his legs makes it look as though he moved in the photo, but he was perfectly still.


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## dmina (Oct 28, 2015)

Beautiful photo's and mantis... They are maturing so quickly..

Can I ask what temp and humidity you have them at?

Thanks for sharing...


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## Ranitomeya (Oct 28, 2015)

The males are unheated at whatever the temperature in my room is and the females are at around the mid to high 80s. The temperatures fluctuate throughout the day, but the males should be getting around room temperature and maybe a bit below that. The humidity isn't monitored, but I wet the piece of paper towel glued to their lid every other day. They're also provided some sugar water every couple of days to mimic capturing bees that have full crops of nectar and they drink a lot of that instead of water.


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## dmina (Oct 28, 2015)

Good job... They are beautiful... Thanks for sharing... I have been keeping mine upper 70's.. I might bump the temp a little...


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## Ranitomeya (Nov 13, 2015)

The first female to molt into an adult did so today, just 72 days after receiving it as an L2.
It has yet to expand its wings and I'll take a picture after it has expanded them and hardened.


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## twolfe (Nov 13, 2015)

A couple of those images you posted on 10/28 would have made a nice addition to the annual forum calendar. Please consider submitting next year!! Good luck breeding yours. It's one species I haven't had luck with.


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## Ranitomeya (Nov 14, 2015)

I hadn't really thought about the calendar--maybe next year. These were all taken with my iPhone 4S and I've found that it's possible to take pretty nice photos with the right lighting.

Female about 20 hours after it successfully escaped its old exoskeleton.




One of my three impatient males immediately pounced and got into position on the fresh female. I had to carefully remove him afterwards to avoid her eating him and him scratching and puncturing her still-soft wings.


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## Ranitomeya (Nov 24, 2015)

Connection 83 days after receiving them as L2 nymphs. That's 11 days after she molted into an adult.



Here's to hoping for a new generation.


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## dmina (Dec 7, 2015)

Great Job! Congrats


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## Ranitomeya (Jan 17, 2016)

One of the two remaining females finally laid an ootheca. I've witnessed both connecting with three different males at least half a dozen times, ending with cohabiting with a male for a month until they both ate their males and the remaining male died of old age. One female fell during her molt to adulthood, another molted everything but the tip of one raptorial claw and the tarsus and hardened her exoskeleton in a heap of tangled and bent legs against the container, and another died for unknown reasons after two months of refusing to eat anything but sugar water after a successful adult molt.

Here's the female with her ootheca laid on the leaf of a Bifrenaria harrisonae. This orchid seems to tolerate conditions quite outside its normal range--it should experience warm and wet summers with cool and dry winters, but I grow it outside where it experiences cool and wet winters and warm and dry summers if I forget to water it. Now it has to deal with me giving it a warm and wet winter.


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## MantisGalore (Jan 20, 2016)

Gorgeous


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## Ranitomeya (Mar 11, 2016)

The first nymph hatched yesterday, and a second hatched today. Despite containing well over a hundred eggs and having seen the female mate several times with multiple males, only about a dozen looked developed when the ootheca was held against a strong light.


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## spider_creations (Mar 11, 2016)

You should do a post on how to take the banna and get it to grow leaves like in one of you pictures I am interested on how you did that could you tell me?


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## Ranitomeya (Mar 12, 2016)

Those are not bananas, but I do see the resemblance. Those are Bifrenaria harrisoniae, a type of orchid. They produce thick storage bulbs.


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## spider_creations (Mar 12, 2016)

Oh wow funny how much they look like bannas


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