Ntsees
Well-known member
The holes were probably due to the weathering, although you can't dismiss that it was parasitized either. Ooths are subject to wear and tear depending on where they are placed. Sometimes, my female mantids place their ooths in a spot where they would get hit by water when ever I water my plants. After a while, those ooths look all washed out and may have a few small holes - as if they were old and already hatched. But when spring rolls around, they hatched out (in great numbers too) with no problem. If your ooths were produced by a mantid that naturally hatched out and grew up in your backyard, you shouldn't have to worry too much that the ooth was already hatched. The European mantid became naturalized because the timing of the seasons in your location matches what it needs. If those mantids only required a short incubation period, the species wouldn't have become naturalized because the ooths would hatch in fall and would not make the winter.
I have to point out the "naturally" because as an example, if you incubated a European ooth and it hatched in December, and were to release the instars the next year when the temperature become warm enough, those mantids would already be at least been half grown (or something like that). They would become adults and produced ooths early in the season, and because it's still early in the season, those ooths would have that sufficient duration of warm period during that summer to allow the eggs to hatch in fall or late fall. But it all works out in the end because those mantids will not survive the winter, leaving only those Europeans that hatched along with the seasons. Basically, hatching a ooth early would throw off the natural timing. Of course, there's no problem with it if you are keeping them inside, but if you plan on releasing them, their genes wouldn't get passed on. (this paragraph doesn't apply to you since you hatched your mantids naturally or with the warming of the season and I'm guessing the north warms up later than here in Central Cali; but I just couldn't help but point this out for others on the forum to read)
As for your ooth, don't worry about it already hatching last year because I'm sure it hasn't. As I've said earlier, the first adult Europeans where I am become adults in early July, and by September, some should already have ooths. The cold doesn't really set in until November - which means those early ooths were subject to the October warmth. I don't know how long the incubation period is for a European ooth, but those early European ooths I had in the past never did hatch until the following early spring. Congrats to you for having one hatchling because I have the worst luck with European mantids. A couple of years ago, my European female was mated and produced 3 good sized ooths - but they never even hatched. Sorry for the long post. I couldn't help myself.
