I hate to have to mention the deaths, but it's a part of the thread... Heterodox (adult male Idolo) unfortunately had to be put down after a couple attacks from Baline (adult female). She ended up damaging him so badly that he could no longer climb or hang. It was sad to see him at the bottom of the cage, sinking to the ground. He would try and try to climb up too which was hard to watch. He wasn't going to be able to mate either in this state. I ended up deciding I would put him down, which was difficult to do. I thought, since I was going to put him down anyways, that I should try to place him on her back after removing his head. I did try this, but it didn't end up working. He didn't even do the motions with his abdomen oddly. After trying for about a half hour, and nothing happening, I just ended up feeding him to all my babies. What a way to go... makes me feel bad that it didn't work out, I would have frozen him if I knew it wouldn't work. Ever since I've been trying very hard to find a replacement. I MAY have found one, but it's not certain yet, mostly because I don't know how long my girls will live. RIP Heterodox... He was a beautiful mantis, even if he was bad at mating.
January 10th 2016
Back to the good news, Neptune (male Heterochaeta hatchling) reached adulthood! I woke up and there he was, hangin'! I was able to get some good photos. I'd been waiting for him all day that day, but he held out til night time haha. The Chaeta usually do this to me. Scaredy molters!
January 11th
Blaar (male Phyllocrania paradoxa) reached adulthood too! I'd owned this species before, it was actually my second species. I had a male and a female, Mostro and Kent-Lok. Mostro ended up dying as a subadult, was puking and such. Kent-Lok, the female, made it to adulthood. This time, it was the other way around. The female, Groen, suddenly died one day. She took a very long time to molt, and it was starting to weird me out, and then one day I woke up and she was at the bottom of her container. But now the male made it to adulthood. I'd never gotten to see an adult male with my own eyes so this is a treat for me. He's beautiful. It was odd, after the molt, he had bubbles on his wings. Like liquid pockets, in the same spot on all four wings. I popped them so they could drain. They're still a little swollen but it's much better. I'd never seen anything like that in all my time of owning mantids. Really strange! Because of the bubbles, his wings were spread out, so I put spots of liquid soap under each wing and stuck them together. I will rinse the soap off in a few days, when his wings have fully dried. Not sure if it'll have helped though, he still may not be able to fly in the end. Guess we will see!
Cute. It's funny to be handling him, then handling a chaeta haha. He makes the chaeta look even bigger, and the chaeta make him look even smaller.
January 10th 2016
Back to the good news, Neptune (male Heterochaeta hatchling) reached adulthood! I woke up and there he was, hangin'! I was able to get some good photos. I'd been waiting for him all day that day, but he held out til night time haha. The Chaeta usually do this to me. Scaredy molters!
January 11th
Blaar (male Phyllocrania paradoxa) reached adulthood too! I'd owned this species before, it was actually my second species. I had a male and a female, Mostro and Kent-Lok. Mostro ended up dying as a subadult, was puking and such. Kent-Lok, the female, made it to adulthood. This time, it was the other way around. The female, Groen, suddenly died one day. She took a very long time to molt, and it was starting to weird me out, and then one day I woke up and she was at the bottom of her container. But now the male made it to adulthood. I'd never gotten to see an adult male with my own eyes so this is a treat for me. He's beautiful. It was odd, after the molt, he had bubbles on his wings. Like liquid pockets, in the same spot on all four wings. I popped them so they could drain. They're still a little swollen but it's much better. I'd never seen anything like that in all my time of owning mantids. Really strange! Because of the bubbles, his wings were spread out, so I put spots of liquid soap under each wing and stuck them together. I will rinse the soap off in a few days, when his wings have fully dried. Not sure if it'll have helped though, he still may not be able to fly in the end. Guess we will see!
Cute. It's funny to be handling him, then handling a chaeta haha. He makes the chaeta look even bigger, and the chaeta make him look even smaller.
Baline's old home.
