I finally had something hatch from my incubating ooths that wasn't a parasitic wasp! I noticed the new nymphs around 6 pm yesterday (Sunday Jan 4), and in a strange coincidence about 4 hours later my first (and only till then) mantis Susanna was dying. She died shortly after midnight, here is the post about Susanna.
The ooth that hatched was one I found outside on the wooden fence running along my carport area. It was a Stagmomantis carolina ooth, and had some damage. Under a close inspection (USB microscope) it showed a few mites inside the damaged area. Here is the original topic about the ooth.
It took 44 days of incubating, after 3 weeks of natural freezing/wintering diapause, to hatch the ooth.
As I know fruit flies can escape through the screen mesh, heck Hydei ones can eventually let alone the Melanogaster which I must feed the nymphs - What is a good additional screen mesh/cover to use to keep the fruit flies in? I seen someone mention pantyhose so if nothing else I'll try that.
I was inspecting my incubating containers as I do several times a day, and rotating/watering as needed, I discovered several tiny Carolina nymphs all over the inside walls of one of the containers.
I immediately hurried to finish the new habitat I was building for any hatched nymphs, the final walls were left to add. It is a 35 pound (5 gallon?) jug that holds frying oil for restaurant use. It measures (inside where the mantis is) roughly 13" x 9" x 10". I found the plastic is a bit thin (that's why they have it in a box with the lid area cut out), but works fine. Inside is lined completely with screen mesh, has a top and bottom feeding tube, and a large 5" screw lid for access inside.
The nymph home has a thin layer of coconut fiber (Plantation Soil) to help with humidity and a place for the Springtails to live - as I read nymphs eat them as well (confirmed) and as they help keep the tank clean.
A rough count of the nymphs once they were in their new home and calmed down, counting each wall quickly, I counted 68, just short of 70. Also after removing the crimped paper substrate from the incubation container I found 3 that died during hatching (mis-molts).
Ooth #10 (the chamber has 2 ooths and is the one on top) hatched 4 more wasps which were killed during the nymph transfer too. Thankfully the nearly hatched wasps are unable to fly, making it easy to dispose of them.
Watching the new nymphs I saw one of the baby mantises twist it's head staring at a Springtail, then it grabbed and ate it. Seems the new mantises are just like the adults and are ready to go.
The photos below are of the newly hatched Carolina nymphs from discovery to in their new home. Too bad the one photo didn't get focus on the nymphs on the branch as it was a funny sight to see so many mantises lined up under it - I thought it was worth including anyway.
The ooth that hatched was one I found outside on the wooden fence running along my carport area. It was a Stagmomantis carolina ooth, and had some damage. Under a close inspection (USB microscope) it showed a few mites inside the damaged area. Here is the original topic about the ooth.
It took 44 days of incubating, after 3 weeks of natural freezing/wintering diapause, to hatch the ooth.
As I know fruit flies can escape through the screen mesh, heck Hydei ones can eventually let alone the Melanogaster which I must feed the nymphs - What is a good additional screen mesh/cover to use to keep the fruit flies in? I seen someone mention pantyhose so if nothing else I'll try that.
I was inspecting my incubating containers as I do several times a day, and rotating/watering as needed, I discovered several tiny Carolina nymphs all over the inside walls of one of the containers.
I immediately hurried to finish the new habitat I was building for any hatched nymphs, the final walls were left to add. It is a 35 pound (5 gallon?) jug that holds frying oil for restaurant use. It measures (inside where the mantis is) roughly 13" x 9" x 10". I found the plastic is a bit thin (that's why they have it in a box with the lid area cut out), but works fine. Inside is lined completely with screen mesh, has a top and bottom feeding tube, and a large 5" screw lid for access inside.
The nymph home has a thin layer of coconut fiber (Plantation Soil) to help with humidity and a place for the Springtails to live - as I read nymphs eat them as well (confirmed) and as they help keep the tank clean.
A rough count of the nymphs once they were in their new home and calmed down, counting each wall quickly, I counted 68, just short of 70. Also after removing the crimped paper substrate from the incubation container I found 3 that died during hatching (mis-molts).
Ooth #10 (the chamber has 2 ooths and is the one on top) hatched 4 more wasps which were killed during the nymph transfer too. Thankfully the nearly hatched wasps are unable to fly, making it easy to dispose of them.
Watching the new nymphs I saw one of the baby mantises twist it's head staring at a Springtail, then it grabbed and ate it. Seems the new mantises are just like the adults and are ready to go.
The photos below are of the newly hatched Carolina nymphs from discovery to in their new home. Too bad the one photo didn't get focus on the nymphs on the branch as it was a funny sight to see so many mantises lined up under it - I thought it was worth including anyway.
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