Blepharopsis Consolidated

[agent A]

I shall add care info to my first post when mine get to L5

meanwhile, here are a few pics of the L4 nymphs:

 

[agent A]

Oh I should add that anyone who wants to post pics and info on blephs here is free to do so , just because I started the thread doesn't mean it's only mine post pics and notes and anything else relevant to Blepharopsis mendica

 

[twolfe]

Here is a photo of my mama b. Mendica that I took yesterday. She is 8 months old now. She likes to chew gum and blow bubbles. (Ha. Ha.)

A while back another forum member posted a photo of an adult with a nymph. I have tried to do that on a few occasions, but it never works out. I just attempted again yesterday and got two shots of an L3 nymph (I think) with her mama. Both times mama flicked the baby off. I decided not to try again. If I try this again, it won't be with a green background.

 

[gripen]

wow!! she is very blue! what did she look like as a nymph? what was her color at sub adult? what conditions was she kept at? i hope it is her babies that i have

 

[twolfe]

She does have a hint of blue on her shield (from beneath) and in a few other areas. The color may also be off on the photo as it looks more green in PhotoShop. As a nymph, she was tan like her baby. The adults turned green anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks after the final molt. I only have one female that has produced viable ooths other than two from another female that both hatched 1 nymph. My female above was first mated with my darkest and prettiest male. I lated mated her with another male.

 

[agent A]

Do I have any of her cutesies?

 

[gripen]

ok thanks. i was wondering because i have seen green nymphs before and i was wondering if she was one of them.

 

[twolfe]

Do I have any of her cutesies?

Yes, all of your babies are from her. Another ooth hatched today.

wow!! she is very blue! what did she look like as a nymph? what was her color at sub adult? what conditions was she kept at? i hope it is her babies that i have

Are you using Internet Explorer? I normally do only for this site. She looks less blue to me in Firefox. The few months I sprayed my b. Mendica too much. But after that, she was kept warm and dry. I don't mist my adults at all and only mist my nymphs once a week.

 

[gripen]

k thanks

 

[gripen]

oh yeah i am using fire fox

 

[meaganelise9]

Dang, Tammy, yours is so much greener than mine. Mine was almost white until adult. Now he has bright stripes but that's about it.

 

[agent A]

I put a new bulb in the heat lamp

Same wattage but a basking bulb

It's about 95 degrees for them now

Is this too hot?

 

[twolfe]

I'm not sure it's too hot, but I don't think it's necessary to keep them that warm unless you are trying to breed them. If yours are in a net, then give them an opportunity to move away from the heat. In the morning, when the heat lamp first turns on, I notice a lot of the little nymphs all line up as close to it as possible. After they warm up, they scatter.

I have too many nets with babies right now and can't keep them all the same temperature. I had one net with no mismolts to L2 and one farther away from the heat with more than my average number of mismolts. It may have just been a coincidence...

 

[agent A]

I notice at lower temps my mantises don't fold their wings correctly, I'll see if they do better with warmer temps and I need them to get to L5 soon cause I'm sick and tired of using hfs, same go for the creos, my mom can't stand seeing loose hfs so let's all hope i don't have to use them much longer

 

[D.J.]

Can someone tell me how to sex them I just can't figure it out and how many molts to adulthood

 

[agent A]

Ok sexing is easy for me, at L4 the nymphs can be sexed by looking at the abdomen and counting the lobes going down the middle

Females have 5, males have 6, and after the largest lobe, females have a long segment with no more lobes, while males have a tiny lobe after this large one, another way is to look for 2 tiny, white, downward pointing hairs between the cerci, this indicates male as well

I believe the molt count is 7 but I'm not positive

 

[agent A]

Well the temp got to almost 100 and they clearly were stressed out by it

Back to the regular bulb for now

 

[Termite48]

Alex: All you have to do is make the distance from the bulb greater. If you make the ambient temperature greater, then the bulb does not have to do all the work of heating the mantids and you can use a lower wattage. In my bug room, the space heater of about 1200 watts does the heating to the night time low of 76 and then heat lamp of 250 watts does the rest.

 

[agent A]

250 watts r u crazy? U r gonna break the bank! A 75 watt basking spot bulb from a pet store gets something 6 inches below almost 100 degrees

Or do u use 1 lamp for EVERYTHING? Just curious

 

[twolfe]

Alex, 4 of my b. Mendica nymphs are now eating bb flies. These were ones that either hatched from the same ooth as yours or the ooth that hatched 5 days later. I have two little runts in the bunch. One is so small that I moved it in with some L2s, but it is a giant compared to them. It's still eating Hydei flies.