Search results

Just don't get you're hopes up that he's actually going to turn into a moth. I wouldn't be surprised if he erupts into a mass of parasitic braconid wasp larvae within the next few days- in my experience it happens to the majority of large spingid caterpillars brought in from outside. It's not...

I'm going to try to keep feeding her. After all she doesn't need to grow anymore.

Bad news... She can't eat solid food. :( I gave her a nice soft- bodied moth and she was chewing away at it for a good 15 minutes before she gave up and dropped it. I couldn't find any damage to it at all. I guess this means I'll have to feed her soft stuff for the rest of her life.... It...

She hatched out of the same ooth as the other Chinese.

No, she's bigger than when she was a subadult. However even as a subadult she wasn't the biggest even though she was one of my most voracious feeders as a pre- subadult.

Here she is! She's really small. http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/salmonsaladsandwic/media/image.jpg1_zpsuea2y6e5.jpg.html And her mouth close up: http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/salmonsaladsandwic/media/image.jpg2_zpsecocmrwl.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

She molted to adulthood this morning! Her mouth isn't perfect but it looks like she'll be able to eat fine. She came out pretty small but that was expected.

If you fed your mantises brightly colored moths and they didn't die, it's likely they were poisonous but the mantises are immune to their specific kind of toxin. It's fairly easy to avoid poisonous insects. If it's clearly making an effort not to be found or caught, it's fast and hard to catch...

I imagine they're great! They're very soft bodied, active but not too fast, and they have a tendency to climb upwards. They look tasty.

Well then they must have different toxins. According to wikipedia Halysidota contains alkaloids acquired from host plants. It doesn't say anything about what's in Apantesis or any closely related genera however.

Well, it sounds like you're mantises are fine. Personally I wouldn't have risked feeding tiger moths to my mantises, however they are a common and widespread group of insects found all over the world and I wouldn't be surprised if most mantis species have evolved resistance to the toxins. Some...

No. They're just infertile eggs. Many insects will lay them if they go too long without mating.

Well today her appetite is reduced and her wing buds are looking a little swollen.

Hmm... I also think red spotted purple.

That's a tiger moth in the genus Apantesis... Funny, they're supposed to be toxic. Maybe they're actually just distasteful and mantises don't care, or perhaps the toxin only affects vertebrates.

Glad I could help.

Looks like a Pseudopolydesmus species.

You might want to increase ventilation (screen is good) and feed her honey, which has antimicrobial properties.

I'm hoping that at least one of my subadult females that's green comes out like that.

Dermestid beetle larvae?