# Empusa Pennata Housing



## Djoul (Aug 28, 2007)

Hey dude,

I checked for some information on the forum, I can find several information about Empusa Pennata, but I would like to put all the information together.

Indeed, I will have thanks to a spanish Friend ooths of empusa.

I read several book too about this empusa.

Everybody has ever breed this mantid ?

What are your perfect housing conditions ? Your results ? Your observation ?

How do you do the diapause ? Is it very necessary for a good growth ?

As I said, my futur mantid will come from Spain, we are in August, so I have to do a diapause ?

Well 8) Can you advice me about this Empusa !!!!! Please ! :wink:


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## Red (Aug 28, 2007)

i'm breeding empusa at this moment, i have it in a little recipient of plastic, with some stems. at 30º at day an d 23 at night.

i have excellent results and tehy are growing fast.

the hibernating is necesary for more fertility and better oothecaes and maybe for have a satisfactory copulating.

regards.


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## Djoul (Aug 29, 2007)

Hello Red, thank you for your response.

what is the duration of the diapause ? and the temperature  

Thanks


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## Ian (Aug 30, 2007)

> i'm breeding empusa at this moment, i have it in a little recipient of plastic, with some stems. at 30º at day an d 23 at night.i have excellent results and tehy are growing fast.
> 
> the hibernating is necesary for more fertility and better oothecaes and maybe for have a satisfactory copulating.
> 
> regards.


Red; it's great that you have these in breeding. I haven't come across anyone breeding these before.

Do keep us updated with how you get on with them!


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## Asa (Sep 1, 2007)

> i'm breeding empusa at this moment, i have it in a little recipient of plastic, with some stems. at 30º at day an d 23 at night.i have excellent results and tehy are growing fast.
> 
> the hibernating is necesary for more fertility and better oothecaes and maybe for have a satisfactory copulating.
> 
> regards.


Yeah, keep it up.


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## yen_saw (Sep 5, 2007)

Alex has great info on Empusa sp. THis one here is for E. Fasciata but it should work for E. Pennata too. It has information on diapause, food, habitat, husbandry, etc for this species and great pics too.

http://www.mantisonline.de/english/index.h...pusa/index.html


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## Hasek (Oct 8, 2007)

Hi!

Can anyone tell/show me what is the difference beetwen Empusa fasciata and Empusa pennata?

Greetings,

Nina


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## yen_saw (Oct 8, 2007)

Nina

Christian should really be the one to answer this question, as i learnt it from him. According to a documentation from _A. Kaltenbach_, _Empusa fasciata _has larger lobes on the middle and hind coxae compared to either _E. Pennata _or _E. pennicornis_.


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## Hasek (Oct 9, 2007)

So if you have only one species in front of you, you can't really tell which species is it?

Empusa fasicata lives in North-East-Italia to Westasia, where do pennata and pennicornis (unicornis?) come from?

And thanks for your answer ;-)


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## yen_saw (Oct 9, 2007)

As far as i know, _Empusa pennata _ can be found in N-Africa, and from Spain to E-Italy. _E. fasciata _ exists from E-Italy to India.

You can tell the differences between _Empusa _of three different species with the pic below. The attached page from a work on European mantids by _A. Kaltenbach _.


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## Christian (Oct 9, 2007)

Hi.

There is no better way to distinguish the European species of _Empusa_ than the picture from the 1963 work by A. Kaltenbach.

I breed E. pennata originating from SE France for a year now. I grew the WC larvae to adulthood, overwintered them and paired them after becoming adults in the spring. Now I have new subadults on the way to diapause. _Empusa_ larvae like it hot (35-45°C) during summertime, but have to be cooled down step by step when they are subadult. Very important is the changing of daytime duration, from 14 h in summer to 9 h in winter. This is the diapause trigger, not the temperature! Without adapting the daylight duration, there can be no diapause! The temperature has to be adjusted after the daylight had been. _Empusa_ is rather complicated. It is not really known if breeding is possible without a diapause. I do not try it at the moment, I want to check out the "real" conditions first before sacrificing specimens to an experiment. Until now, it works perfectly.

Regards,

Christian


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## Hasek (Oct 10, 2007)

Thanks both for your answers. Can you describe diapause more specifically? How much time does it take to slowly go from 14 hours of daytime to 9 hours? And from 35°C to 10°C? Do you feed them during this time and can you have them together? You spray them once per week during diapause? Oh and is this work by A. Kaltenbach a book or an article?

Sorry for so many questions. I don't have _Empusa_ at home yet, because first I would like to know more about breeding and keeping them and I would be very happy for every information about them.

Greetings,

Nina


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## Christian (Oct 10, 2007)

Hi.

The work by Kaltenbach is a rather long article dealing with the Europan mantid species. It has no color plates, but excellent drawings of almost all described mantids or parts of them.

Best is to follow the climate of the original habitat as best as possible. Just change the conditions week-wise, I do it like this, but I rather follow my "instinct". Difficult to explain. The minimum temperature should be as low as possible in winter, but always above 1° C. There is no much information about the amount of "natural" conditions _Empusa_ needs for successful breeding, best would be to try it out for yourself. Spraying should occur every three days, feeding just occasionally (try out if they are hungry, if yes, feed more). Mines did not eat anything for weeks. The warmer the winter condition, the more food they may need.

During summertime they need a lot of food!

Regards,

Christian


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## yen_saw (Oct 11, 2007)

Yes as Christian said. Great part is that this is Northern Hemisphere species so they get into diapause the same time we have winter so it is easy to play with the temp. I use a light source attached to a timer and have the cage in a closet so as to simulate winter condition with cooler/dryer environment and a complete darkness, i am planning to shorten the "bright" hours starting next week and continue till there is only 6-7 hour of bright hour before gradually increasing the daylight hour again, hopefully I can speed up the process of diapause in less than 2 months. I have 2 pairs of sub-subadult now and i can notice they're starting to show less interest in food recently.


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## empusapennata (Oct 17, 2007)

yen_saw said:


> As far as i know, _Empusa pennata _ can be found in N-Africa, and from Spain to E-Italy. _E. fasciata _ exists from E-Italy to India.You can tell the differences between _Empusa _of three different species with the pic below. The attached page from a work on European mantids by _A. Kaltenbach _.


Hi,

I live in Madrid Spain, and in these days we see a lot Empusa Pennata (nyph). The different

with fasciata is also show in this article:

Roy, R. 2004. Critical re-arrangements in the family Empusidae and phylogenetic relationships (Dictyoptera, Mantodea).

Revue Francaise d'Entomologie (Nouvelle Serie) 26(1):1-18.





I've something interesting articles in Empusa pennata for exchange, some of them are in Spanish Language.

Best Regards

Jose


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## Christian (Oct 17, 2007)

Hi.

The pic from that article show the genitalia. They may help if you are used to taxonomic stuff, however, for most breeders characters of the outer morphology are of greater value. Please write me a PM with the article list you offer.

Regards,

Christian


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## Morpheus uk (Oct 19, 2007)

I caught mine in a shrubby layer, dry gravely soil, and dried dead weeds everywhere


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## yen_saw (Dec 7, 2007)

After close to 2 months of cooler period, the Empusa nymphs quickly adapt to the warmer temperature and start feeding greedily. Two males molted into subadult just few days later with extra heat. females are still 2 molts away from adult.


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## idolomantis (Dec 7, 2007)

Ian said:


> Red; it's great that you have these in breeding. I haven't come across anyone breeding these before. Do keep us updated with how you get on with them!


hmm i go every year to france or spain and each year i see empussa pennata. and this year i,m gonna breed them (dont ask me why i never did before...)


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