July 29th
Lawless (male Idolo) finally molted to L6, it took him 25 days. Once again drawer liner has proven to work like a charm. This is the first molt of theirs that I didn't get on video, they all did it when I was either asleep or in a different room, aww...
Unfortunately Lawless didn't have a perfect molt. All but his two front feet are perfect... he lost the walking hairs of those two feet. I couldn't figure it out at first, I didn't understand why he would molt perfectly aside from two of his walking hairs, and came to the realization that it was probably because of the heat lamp. He molted directly underneath it, with those two front legs just under the bulb. I think the walking hairs got too dry because of the heat lamp and so got stuck in the exuvia. You learn something new all the time with mantids... next time there's a molt, I'm not placing a heat lamp on top of the lid, I'll shine it into the cage from the side.
Those hooks are extremely important for molting so I'm a bit nervous now about his next molt. I'm probably going to have to use unnatural methods to get him to molt properly. Idolos are prone to falling with all four legs working properly, never mind having just two. And he is my only male so if he doesn't make it, I can't breed them, which has been my dream for years. But I think that as long as I am there for his next molt that he will be okay and will grow the walking hairs back. Crossing my fingers.
He is at least doing a lot better than I thought he would. I didn't think he'd be able to walk or hang upside down properly at all, but he's doing both. He hasn't fallen once, though has slipped, but his other walking appendages saved him. He can catch prey, etc. So the main concern is just the next molt.
July 31st
Zeltor (the first molting original Heterochaeta) molted to L8! She's amazing, I love to see how big she's getting. She looks to be a presub, how many molts do these guys HAVE?! Wow. Lol. But she grew an entire inch from L7-L8, and is almost 3 1/2". So considering that, by adulthood she will indeed be 6-something inches. Awesome.
That's all folks! For now...
Lawless (male Idolo) finally molted to L6, it took him 25 days. Once again drawer liner has proven to work like a charm. This is the first molt of theirs that I didn't get on video, they all did it when I was either asleep or in a different room, aww...
Unfortunately Lawless didn't have a perfect molt. All but his two front feet are perfect... he lost the walking hairs of those two feet. I couldn't figure it out at first, I didn't understand why he would molt perfectly aside from two of his walking hairs, and came to the realization that it was probably because of the heat lamp. He molted directly underneath it, with those two front legs just under the bulb. I think the walking hairs got too dry because of the heat lamp and so got stuck in the exuvia. You learn something new all the time with mantids... next time there's a molt, I'm not placing a heat lamp on top of the lid, I'll shine it into the cage from the side.
Those hooks are extremely important for molting so I'm a bit nervous now about his next molt. I'm probably going to have to use unnatural methods to get him to molt properly. Idolos are prone to falling with all four legs working properly, never mind having just two. And he is my only male so if he doesn't make it, I can't breed them, which has been my dream for years. But I think that as long as I am there for his next molt that he will be okay and will grow the walking hairs back. Crossing my fingers.
He is at least doing a lot better than I thought he would. I didn't think he'd be able to walk or hang upside down properly at all, but he's doing both. He hasn't fallen once, though has slipped, but his other walking appendages saved him. He can catch prey, etc. So the main concern is just the next molt.
July 31st
Zeltor (the first molting original Heterochaeta) molted to L8! She's amazing, I love to see how big she's getting. She looks to be a presub, how many molts do these guys HAVE?! Wow. Lol. But she grew an entire inch from L7-L8, and is almost 3 1/2". So considering that, by adulthood she will indeed be 6-something inches. Awesome.
That's all folks! For now...
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While it is great to keep track by putting them together like that, I tend to put them all in one container. At the moment it is somewhere short of 100 exuviae skins in there. I figure I'll eventually take some photos of them, maybe for a desktop background or something 
