Hatching during shipment...grrrr

yen_saw · Sep 11, 2007

After the Arizona unicorn ooth incident, i received another parcel of oothecae, guess what happened (yeah make a wild guess :roll: ), it hatched during shipment!! USPS must have the best incubating condition for them to hatch ha! :lol:

This time it is the idolomantis diabolica...bummer

Here are just few of the casualties, from the dismembered and headless body, it shows that nymphs must have hatched out some days ago and cannibalism took place as well.

Here are the ooth that hatched

I immediately threw in bunch of D. hydei, but the large ff looks so small for them so house flies were used. The hatchling are very thirsty and hungry that they gobbled up the house flies. Not many species of hatchling able to handle house fly, this is definately one species that has no problem!

Ian · Sep 11, 2007

Ahh no! I had this happen to me when I got my first Idolo ooths from Tanz, which was such a bugger. Well at least you still have some live guys left.

Were these wild caught or captive bred ooths?

ismart · Sep 11, 2007

Wow :shock: i cant believe there big enough to eat house flys at L1 thats very impressive. I'm glad not all of them perished through transit. Best of luck with your new nymphs.

yen_saw · Sep 11, 2007

These are wild collected i presumed, traded the ooth from UK. There might be other people out there successfully breeding this species but the only person i knew is Sascha who has a record of captive bred ootheca hatching. Unfortunately his ootheca didn't hatch out for me but he is going to send me more so i will have new bloodline. Currently i have about 50-60 nymphs and another three oothecae (finger crossed all nymphs survive and all the ooth hatch) to work with.

Thanks Ismart i need all your luck :wink:

Morpheus uk · Sep 11, 2007

Had to be idolos an all :roll:

Good luck with ya next ones, think about 90 hatch?

OGIGA · Sep 11, 2007

They must be large nymphs! I think I would have been hungry by then too.

hibiscusmile · Sep 11, 2007

Hey Yen, if you can get them to feed and water them for you too, then all you have to do is address boxes and they can just ship them to their new homes! I would of cried

. Make sure you address mine first, cause you know I want them babies!

yen_saw · Sep 11, 2007

about 80 hatched, one has about 50 and the other 30. Bummer they hatched during transit, otherwise i would have greater number of breeding stock to work with.

Yes Ogiga the hatchling of this species is huge, and even has visible lobe at first instar.

WOw that would almost guarantee live arrival isn't it Rebecca :wink: I don't mind the "extra" work at all :lol: The hatchling are still weak, i hope to nurse them back into good health again before sending any away. Not going to keep them all myself i promise!

joossa · Sep 11, 2007

I wish you the best of luck rearing this species, Yen. Hopefully you will do to them what you did for Orchids here in the US. :wink:

robo mantis · Sep 11, 2007

YEAH YEN breed millions then everyone will have them

yen_saw · Sep 11, 2007

Can't guarantee but promise to do my best

robo mantis · Sep 11, 2007

you will do fine!

Asa · Sep 11, 2007

Must've cost a lot...

Christian · Sep 11, 2007

Hi.

In fact, L1 Idolomantis even may handle Lucilia flies.

There are only 4 persons (including myself) breeding this species from the beginning (first imports some years ago) without adding new blood. My stock changed meanwhile from a one-year to a half-year cycle. The species isn't really simple, so I doubt it will spread like Hymenopus. Over here, everyone got it and tried to breed it, but after 2 years, the same 4 persons rested which really breed Idolomantis. Until now, there were 4 stocks known: one from Mwanza, one from Moshi, one from Musoma and one from Malindi. The Malindi and Moshi stocks are extinct in culture, the Musoma one of Sascha is new. He bred it for one generation and was not really successful, so he gave it away to someone else. It would be interesting to know how long it will persist. Only the Mwanza stock persisted from the beginning. The ooths traded by Yen would maybe represent a new stock, if breeding is succesful. The reason why it is important to differentiate between stocks is that they turned out to be partially incompatible and may require different climatic conditions. Without knowing the origin every import is rather risky.

Regards,

Christian

Andrew · Sep 11, 2007

Whoa. You've still got quite a few nymphs though, so I'm sure you'll have good luck with them.

Christian - Very interesting bit of information there...

Asa · Sep 11, 2007

Hi.In fact, L1 Idolomantis even may handle Lucilia flies.

There are only 4 persons (including myself) breeding this species from the beginning (first imports some years ago) without adding new blood. My stock changed meanwhile from a one-year to a half-year cycle. The species isn't really simple, so I doubt it will spread like Hymenopus. Over here, everyone got it and tried to breed it, but after 2 years, the same 4 persons rested which really breed Idolomantis. Until now, there were 4 stocks known: one from Mwanza, one from Moshi, one from Musoma and one from Malindi. The Malindi and Moshi stocks are extinct in culture, the Musoma one of Sascha is new. He bred it for one generation and was not really successful, so he gave it away to someone else. It would be interesting to know how long it will persist. Only the Mwanza stock persisted from the beginning. The ooths traded by Yen would maybe represent a new stock, if breeding is succesful. The reason why it is important to differentiate between stocks is that they turned out to be partially incompatible and may require different climatic conditions. Without knowing the origin every import is rather risky.

Regards,

Christian

Maybe I should try breeding them..

Sparky · Sep 11, 2007

wow those ooths are big

swoosh · Sep 11, 2007

Big ooths and big nymphs too.

yen_saw · Sep 12, 2007

Must've cost a lot...

Nope... it was traded for other species, no money (in liquid form) involved.

Whoa. You've still got quite a few nymphs though, so I'm sure you'll have good luck with them.

Thanks, i'll be happy if half of them survive to adulthood, majority of them were in no good shape when i got them yesterday. I am surprise they survived in a small container going through a rought trip without food and water.

Update: i have another 2-3 casualties, but the rest are doing well after gobbled up some juicy honey/pollen coated flies.

Hatching during shipment...grrrr

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