Appearance of wing buds (first sign of swelling)

[Matt-Tucson]

Hi,

I assume that since my Giant Asian mantis has for the first time have swollen wing buds, that this means she is a sub adult. Does this also mean her next molt will be her last and she will then be a full adult or could she have more after the next? Thanks!

Matt

 

[ShieldMantid1997]

Kind of blurry but by your description, yes, and it does look about the size for that species.

The thing is, pre subs will also display wing buds, but they do not swell up like that.

 

[happy1892]

Pre-subs wingbuds swell but not as big.

 

[Nicolas]

That looks like a "he", I can tell. Raised a female and a male Giant asian, male passed, female is alive and well, when he was a nymph, his abdomen looked exactly like this.

 

[gripen]

Looks female to me.

That looks like a "he", I can tell. Raised a female and a male Giant asian, male passed, female is alive and well, when he was a nymph, his abdomen looked exactly like this.

 

[Matt-Tucson]

I sexed her by counting her abdomen's segments. I am sure on that aspect of her. I think the angle of the shots makes it appear more that way than if you were to see her in person. Her abdomen usually looks fairly large. OK, so we have established that she is a sub adult, but does that mean that her next moult will be her last? I am unclear on whether or not sub adult is a single instar or if she may have another sub adult one before her final moult. I wonder if the buds swell like that only on the instar before adult. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Matt-Tucson]

No one knows? Wow. :/

 

[lancaster1313]

When she gets her full wings there will be no more molting. There is only one subadult stage. There is a confusing term sub subadult that I take to mean the stage before subadult. I don't even like to use it unless I have personal experience raising the species being discussed. The sub thing can look different on different genera and species.

 

[ShieldMantid1997]

She only has one more molt left.

 

[Matt-Tucson]

Thank you!