14 ooths from 1 Iris oratoria!!!

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My amazing girl, I call her "triangle head," laid her 14th ooth today! It is very small, and probably not viable, but I think that is amazing!!? Does anyone know how many ooths they are supposed to lay? I saved her from the storms and near drowning back in August. I haven't had that much luck with the ones that I raised from nymphs indoors.

Anyway, I think she is on her last leg. She looks pretty beat up. I am truly blessed to have been a part of her life!

 

[Ntsees]

14? Wow, you must be feeding it a lot. Mines never got to that many ooths, but then again, I don't feed as much once they've had like about 3 or 4 ooths because a lot are already going to hatch from those.

 

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She died 2 days after laying the ooth.

The less I fed her, the smaller the ooth. She seemed to lay every 2 weeks no matter how fat she was.

So, when you don't feed them much anymore, do they live comfortably? How long is the life span as an adult? Most of my indoor ones average around 5 months as an adult. The outdoor ones live about 3 to 4 months as an adult. Is that normal?

 

[massaman]

only problem is though the more ooths she lays the lower the chances they may be fertile and by 14 ooths but being she does not need a male though they may or may not hatch but it is up to the ooth to decide!

 

[Ntsees]

So, when you don't feed them much anymore, do they live comfortably? How long is the life span as an adult? ....

In the winter, after I have around 4 or 5 ooths, I feed them only enough for them to have food to survive but not to produce ooths (on a mass production mentality). I find that laying more ooths will shorten their lifespan (just a presumption, and not necessarily true, based on what I see). I do not count the months, but my oldest lived to almost a year.

 

[mantiseater]

That is the amount that I usually get out of brunners mantises

 

[Orin]

That is pretty unusual. Are you counting any small or partial attempts as complete oothecae? Sometimes they try to make one and it ends up getting split into three or four pieces as they get old and lose their footing during construction.

 

[Bugmankeith]

I have a chinese mantis that lays one ootheca a week! She eats every day.

If mantids are like roaches as long as they mated once all will be fertile. I had a hissing cockroach mate once and be fertile for 3 years without mating again. Broods were smaller as time went on but each time she was fertile!

 

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I know what your talking about with the split ooths. That happened with my one of my indoor females. Triangle head's ooths are whole.

Her average ooth length is 3.5 -4cm. I just measured: the 13th ooth is 1.5cm, and the 14th ooth is a little less than 1 cm. Her 14th ooth was laid after she got sick from eating a cricket. She used the last bit of energy she had to lay it. So, I guess they could be incomplete, but they are whole and not split into pieces. I doubt they are viable because she was sick. I know this species lays small ooths compared to other species.

Last year I recused 2 females from the cold and the 8th and 9th ooths (that I knew of, there could have been more), hatched healthy nymphs. The mantids I raised from nymphs laid a lot less, and there was a longer time period between ooth layings.

My theory: Iris oratoria metabolism is so high when exposed to 100 + degree temperatures. In the wild they cannot survive that long, which is why they lay so quickly~ every 2 weeks. So, when I bring them inside, their metabolism may slow down, but it is still pretty high and they still lay quickly, as if they were in the wild.

I don't know much, but I love to understand why!

What do you think?