California Mantis?

[AndrewLee]

Hey guys, I have a couple of questions:
1. Is this mantis a California mantis? I'm like 99% sure.





2. It laid an ootheca and can you tell if it's infertile or not? If yes, how?



3. Is this setup for the ootheca okay? I have high humidity, low ventilation, and a heat mat under neath which keeps it hot inside. Is this okay?

 

[happy1892]

I am leaning towards S. limbata (Not certain yet.). The ootheca's coloration is purplish instead of light, straw brown colour. The adult female looks kind of stocky and the wing shape looks more like S. limbata than S. californica I think. In this picture (http://bugguide.net/node/view/1128330/bgimage) it compares adult females of S. carolina and S. limbata, adult females of S. californica wing shape are similar to S. carolina females in my opinion (I have not compared them much, and have not seen S. limbata or S. californica in real life before). Do you have any better pictures of a dorsal view?

Did you see the black stripes on the abdomen underneath the wings?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/688564/bgimage

I have a suspicion that several of the images of female S. californica here on this bugguide page are actually S. limbata... And I have no idea about the nymphs. lol

http://bugguide.net/node/view/7985/bgimage?from=0

And this guy seems to be a S. limbata male because of the green stripe that goes along the side of it's wing.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/999518/bgimage

 

[AndrewLee]

I haven't seen any stripes. Will try to post another pic.

 

[Rick]

Simply lift the wings and look underneath. Should be dark bars above the abdomen and the flying wings should be dark. Just doing that will either confirm or eliminate Californica. I agree it doesn't look quite right.

You cannot tell if an ooth is fertile just by looking at it. If the female was wild caught as an adult the chances are good it is fertile. I would not go with that low-ventilation high humidity setup you have there as conditions that are too wet could encourage mold to form. I suppose a heat pad would be fine as long as you know how hot it is in there. Normal room temperatures should be fine for the ooth.

 

[rbird]

Judging by the Ootheca it looks like a S. Limbata to my eyes. The S. Californica Ootheca looks different than what you have there. (I have both Oothecae at present.)

This link is to the caresheet which has a picture of the S. Californica Ooth.

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29763

 

[Rick]

Judging by the Ootheca it looks like a S. Limbata to my eyes. The S. Californica Ootheca looks different than what you have there. (I have both Oothecae at present.)

This link is to the caresheet which has a picture of the S. Californica Ooth.

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29763

Ooths are variable in their appearance within a species and Stagmomantis ooths can look rather similar. I just sent a S. californica ooth off to someone and it didn't look much like the one in the picture you linked to.

If the characters I mentioned in my first reply are absent, it is not californica which would most likely mean limbata.