Blepharopsis Consolidated

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PhilinYuma said:
Well done, Alex. I can add some stuff on empusids in general, size of ooth, hatching time, etc,tomorrow, if you like. Right now, I'll just say something about RH. Your day time RH of 10% is extremely low for just about any insect anywhere. I imagine that you were remembering that Tunisia is a collecting ground for this species, and Tunisia is the home of the Sahara.where the afternoon humidity can be down to 5%. But B. mendica doesn't live in the desert. The northern region in which it lives has between 5-15" rainfall annually depending on the area. The supposed AR for my Yuma is under around 3.6" (I say supposed, because it has been below that for a long time now) and in the afternoons of the driest month the RH will seldom drop below 15% so 20% should be a minimum. Is your house naturally that dry?

In the wild, mantids can suss out the moistest area possible for molting, but that can be much harder to do in a homogenous, controlled environment. I think that such a low humidity may induce bad molts. Another, practical reason for a rather higher humidity is that many elctronic hygrometers won't measure below 10%RH, so you could run into trouble there. O.K. that's it for now.

BRW, didn't we already srart a care sheet on this species with Tammy's pix? No matter,; we can "consolidate" them later! :D
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Phil please please do share :D
 
I have only three B. mendica from Tammy. The two larger ones are L-3 and yesterday was the first time I saw one of them take two HF simultaneously. That is so cool to see. They are also taking on BBs. Not two at a time though. That is asking too much of such a small mantid. I will start at L-4 to keep them at different temps depending on sex. Right now with the great CA weather, mine are outside during the day at about 85-90 degrees and in the evening when they come in the temp is at 82 degrees until I go to bed and then things are adjusted to keep them at night at about 72-74 degrees. I do mist the room, and never directly the nymphs per Tammy's instruction. I did have a lonely mendica hatch from an ooth from another member and that nymph is now fine at L-2. No others ever emerged from that ooth. These mantids are easy to distinguish, even at L-2 they are developing a prominant pronatum that is specific to the species. As of 2 PM this afternoon, on the side of the net cage where one of the mendica nymphs was clinging, the temp reads 90 degrees. This is not the published temp for Carson,CA but it is a direct sun reading from my probe type thermometer. The R/H there is 35%. Other nymphs that are placed outside get direct spraying for hydration and overall preference for a more humid condition.

 
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meaganelise9 said:
How big are the hatches for mendica ooths?
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The UK Mantis forum says the hatch 20 - 50.My first three ooths produced between 40 - 45 nymphs. I tried counting them when they were in the net enclosures, but they have places to hide. My fourth ooth produced 62 nymphs. I actually counted them as I transferred them from a deli cup to a net enclosure. A friend had one of my ooths hatch from this same female, and he said that it were a lot of nymphs, but he didn't give me a #.

 
Concerning humidity, I did a decent job of keeping relative humidity in 45-50% range by soaking the substrate, instead of constant misting. It would take about 2 days before the RH at the top of the enclosure would drop significantly. Of course, this brought with it mildew/mold problems, which we addressed in another thread (spraying the substrate with a vinegar solution did the trick).

Meaning, it wouldn't take a lot of effort to tweak your soaking systems and areas to get a fairly constant RH, without subjecting the nymphs to direct spraying.

But you HAVE to clean up the dead body parts every other day or so, or you invite other pests into the environment. Yuck!

 
That sounds like my two but I have one question at what age are they sexable

 
Also it is notibal to mention that my two are taking roaches of the tongs.

 
My Idolos would eat pieces of chicken off tongs - but it wasn't practical to do this on a large scale (and, it opens me up to all kinds of discussions on the could/should's of feeding them non-living or vertebrate food). Besides, I have very little access to research concerning the real nutritional needs of these critters.

I will mention that my Idolo adult which was fly-fed (and ONLY fly-fed) suffered from what appeared to be mineral deficiencies (small cavities and blemishes on the surface areas), which have almost completely been repaired with the single change to a (well-fed) cricket-only diet. It bears mentioning that most of the flies were consumed right after pupation, with little or no chance to feed "properly" beforehand.

 
Agreed. But feeding my ARMY of Idolos with bees would have sent many of the members here into a rage! So, they'd only rarely get a stray honeybee. Sigh.

 
Get back on topic there already is an idolomantis consolidated! How would people who have kept multiple blephs rate them on the communal scale? One being never ten being will rip each other to bits in minutes :D

 
Probably 2.5, mine r sometimes in funny standoffs and sometimes a bit territorial but they haven't killed each other

Wat really surprises me is I have yet to see cannabalism in a net cage full of creo nymphs that im not feeding because my hfs still haven't emerged

 
Gripen do keep in mind that besides humidity, Mendica and Idolo are not that far away genetically, if you keep both(which I do)you'll see they can be treated the same except the Mendica need almost no water.

 
That is true they are but we are not talking about idolos are we?

 
Hey does anyone think the hydrothermometer says the humidity is under 10% because it's directly under the heat lamp? I had my female popa molt successfully to adult in a net cafe right under a similar heat lamp

 
I think Phil said most hydrometers don't go under 10% . What hydrometer do you use? Also do blephs need modified deli cups with better ventilation to survive?

 
gripen said:
That is true they are but we are not talking about idolos are we?
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Yes that is all to true, but comparisons can be drawn for the sake of good info, y/n?

If you have 10 mendica (L3 and up) together in a enclosure soon you will have just one fat one left. ;)

 
The 2 dashed lines mean the humidity is below 10%

I think the reason peeps say good ventilation is so they stay dry, I have my net cages in a terrarium to take advantage of a technicality on my moms heat lamp rule (she only allows a heat lamp to be on unattended if it's on a screen lid) and the terrarium will hopefully collect a little humidity

Ive learned that they still need some moisture in the air, just not as much

 
angelofdeathzz said:
Yes that is all to true, but comparisons can be drawn for the sake of good info, y/n?

If you have 10 mendica (L3 and up) together in a enclosure soon you will have just one fat one left. ;)
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Yes you can draw similaritys but when there is back and forth about just idolos then there is a problem.What enclosure did you keep yours in?

 

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