# An Ooth ! An Ooth ! My kingdom for an Ooth !



## Digger (Apr 7, 2013)

After months of searching hedges, tall bushes, reeds, you name it - I FINALLY found an ooth this morning. This was a planned ooth hunt (2 hours).

There are 2 anomalies on it. Indentations or holes. Could it have hatched so soon? The weather's been unseasonably cold. Tried to make a couple of images below. Is it worth incubating? Most likely T. sinensis.

Thanks!


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## lancaster1313 (Apr 7, 2013)

Nice find! Give it a go!

I have had worse looking oothecae hatch.


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## aNisip (Apr 7, 2013)

Awesome find!  congrats! those holes appear that some animal might have tried to open it, or it might have gotten damaged from something else... also i like that paper the cup is sitting in with all of our forum usernames and then our actual name  

it should take abt a month of being in your warmer home to hatch...


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## MantidBro (Apr 7, 2013)

Holy , you found one out in the wild in New Jersey? I've never seen one in my life. That or a wild mantid. I live in MA. Maybe it's because I never went looking. And any mantids could have blended in so well I didn't see it, since I wasn't looking. That's awesome that you found a wild ootheca! It does look like it belongs to a Tenodera sinensis. It took 2 hours to find it? Where did you find it? I know you found it on a branch, but what was the environment like? Water/woods? Was it a shaded area or was it out in the open, in the sun? The holes aren't from the nymphs hatching, it's something outside of the ootheca that made those. The nymphs come out of only the middle of the ootheca, where the ridges are, the 'zipper'. It's definitely worth incubating, you can still get hundreds out of an ootheca like this. I've had half of an ootheca before which still hatched.


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## Digger (Apr 7, 2013)

Andrew - eagle eye ! Yes, that's my cheat sheet of some of the forum members' real names. Makes it nicer, particularly in chat. You can see MantidBro's listing a tiny bit (Alexander).

Bro - It took a lot of careful searching ! I centered my search on flowering shrubs and small trees, facing the Spring sun (mostly east/southeast). The ooth was on a medium sized shrub, about 5 feet off the ground, facing east. I suspect you might find more around water (this was not) because the environment has more insects. Of course it has more predators too. If you want to do this, plan around hedges and thick bushes at the edge of a wood. And set aside at least a couple of hours! Something like Forsythia might be a good starting point.


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## sally (Apr 7, 2013)

Yay! Great find. Hopefully soon you will have hundreds of new babies.


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## MantidBro (Apr 7, 2013)

Digger said:


> Andrew - eagle eye ! Yes, that's my cheat sheet of some of the forum members' real names. Makes it nicer, particularly in chat. You can see MantidBro's listing a tiny bit (Alexander).
> 
> Bro - It took a lot of careful searching ! I centered my search on flowering shrubs and small trees, facing the Spring sun (mostly east/southeast). The ooth was on a medium sized shrub, about 5 feet off the ground, facing east. I suspect you might find more around water (this was not) because the environment has more insects. Of course it has more predators too. If you want to do this, plan around hedges and thick bushes at the edge of a wood. And set aside at least a couple of hours! Something like Forsythia might be a good starting point.


Wow, that is an eagle eye, I didn't even notice the cheat sheet of the forum's username with the real names. Good idea! I only ever chatted a few times, I should do it more often.

I can imagine it did! So shrubs/small trees, facing the sun, hedges and thick bushes at the edge of wood. Thanks for the info, I'm definitely going to go looking in the woods when we go next. I just hope that it'll be for long enough that I'm able to find one. That's my dream, to find a wild mantid's ootheca, hatch it, raise them, breed them, keep them going. Sell some, keep some, let the rest go.


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## aNisip (Apr 7, 2013)

Digger said:


> Andrew - eagle eye ! Yes, that's my cheat sheet of some of the forum members' real names. Makes it nicer, particularly in chat. You can see MantidBro's listing a tiny bit (Alexander).


Thanks  I was mainly going off of in the bottom right is Plex-Ashley and the beginning of SilentDevil-Albert on the bottom left .....and in the reflection of the cup is Malakyoma


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## lancaster1313 (Apr 7, 2013)

Andrew has the eyes for sure. Very observant!


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## mantid_mike (Apr 7, 2013)

Congrats on your find!  That's a good looking ooth. The hole(s) on it was probably from a bird pecking at it. I've found ooths with similar holes and they're still fertile.


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## Digger (Apr 7, 2013)

AndrewNisip said:


> Thanks  I was mainly going off of in the bottom right is Plex-Ashley and the beginning of SilentDevil-Albert on the bottom left .....and in the reflection of the cup is Malakyoma


_The reflection in the cup is Malakyoma_. Dude, it's not that you're observant. You're not _human_ ! You've been around mantids way too long, Andrew and have the eyesight to prove it. Forget entomology. The CIA needs you!


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## Malakyoma (Apr 7, 2013)

I cant even read my own name in the reflection but andrew can.

Congrats Digger. I hope I can have some luck finding them too


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## lancaster1313 (Apr 7, 2013)

I have reached my quota of positive votes for the day. Posts #11, #12.

I think I will need you on my next hunting trip, Andrew. You know that I will find nothing, but you definitely will find something.


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## aNisip (Apr 7, 2013)

Image Copyright Pat Otoole

I borrowed ur pic to show where malakyoma's name is...

Now it isnt vertical like the red letters are but written horizontal (and backwards because its a reflection)

I tried drawing an arrow to each letter...hope this helps


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 7, 2013)

looks good, it has not hatched from what I see, get ready for babies!

Lets see, you will need, 100 fruit fly cultures, 2000 diapers, 3000 nannies,,,.....


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## sinensispsyched (Apr 7, 2013)

AndrewNisip said:


> Image Copyright Pat Otoole
> 
> I borrowed ur pic to show where malakyoma's name is...
> 
> ...


You guys are good, scary good!


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## Mime454 (Apr 7, 2013)

Digger said:


> Andrew - eagle eye ! Yes, that's my cheat sheet of some of the forum members' real names. Makes it nicer, particularly in chat. You can see MantidBro's listing a tiny bit (Alexander).
> 
> .


That's scary, clever and funny all at the same time.


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## sally (Apr 7, 2013)

Why does it say image copyright Pat OToole? It isn't my photo. :S


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## aNisip (Apr 8, 2013)

sally said:


> Why does it say image copyright Pat OToole? It isn't my photo. :S


MY BAD! I meant John Miller, yes, you digger  

sorry for the confusion Pat :/


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## sally (Apr 8, 2013)

AndrewNisip said:


> MY BAD! I meant John Miller, yes, you digger
> 
> sorry for the confusion Pat :/


 Haha no prob.


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## twolfe (Apr 8, 2013)

Congrats Digger! It's funny that you found that since we were just chatting about you being able to watch an ooth hatch last night in the chatroom. I sure hope you get to see it. I know there have been some amazing hatch photos posted on this site, but there is nothing like witnessing it in person.


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## Digger (Apr 8, 2013)

Hi Tammy,

I sent you a PM, yesterday, regarding that


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