Can you breed mantids with their siblings?

[agent A]

That may well be true, but we could run into a problem where a parasite or a virus could destroy an entire line of mantids because there is so little genetic diversity.

a parasite attacking captive bred animals??

 

[Necronlord44]

a parasite attacking captive bred animals??

You would be surprised, a pathogen can come from just about anywhere. If a captive inbred population happens to be susceptible to it, the pathogen could very well ravage the entire population.

The insect zoo here at ISU ran into this problem with a species of walking stick.

 

[Saebjorn9]

At least where I am, mantises are very uncommon. Yet at least 100-200 hatch from each ooth. I'd assume since they're pretty rare, and yet a single ooth can introduce a ton of siblings into the same area. Inbreeding occurs on a pretty common basis.