Concerned about O. scudderi oothecae....

[Mantida]

Only two nymphs hatched out of the ooths - one from one ooth, and one from another. This happened two/three days ago. The second nymph hatched out from the first ootheca laid by my female, and the first nymph hatched out from an ooth that was laid later. Does that signify dead eggs? Or just drib drab hatching?

They are kept at 35-40% humidity (humidity of the room they are in, not in the container), in containers with "breathable" cloth lids so the ventilation is okay and there is no mold. Kept at the same conditions as I have always kept ooths, and my hatch rates have always been fine.

Are they the only ones that survived, or early developers? I heard that for most species on the first hatch of an ootheca, if 48 hours later there isn't anything else that comes out, nothing will. I know there are exceptions to this, like Brunneria borealis.

For all the oothecae to not hatch, why did it have to be the scudd ones? Urk. Though maybe, I'm just being impatient and paranoid. Please help me clear this up.

If my scudderi oothecae don't hatch, I'm going to be really, really sad, and literally go sulk in a corner. :mellow:

 

[Mantida]

I forgot to mention that another reason why I'm so concerned is that the first ooth the scudderi female laid for me has been incubating for about 105 days - an extremely long time.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Geeeeze I am not liking that! It could be she is at the end of her egg laying and not much stuff to go around, she is wild caught isn't she? That is the only real reason for it as I see it. Course I could be wrong

 

[Orin]

I forgot to mention that another reason why I'm so concerned is that the first ooth the scudderi female laid for me has been incubating for about 105 days - an extremely long time.

Did you hot glue all the oothecae? These are tiny oothecae and it's possible the eggs were mostly killed. I don't know who came up with the hot glue idea (Praying mantids keeping aliens suggests superglue) but certain oothecae have eggs right near the base and hot glue ought to kill all or most of these.

The other possible reason is humidity. During the winter with the heat running it's a lot harder to keep a proper humidity level. You may hatch out oothecae all year fine but get killed in the winter.

Oliginicella oothecae are very tiny and issues with either of the above could destroy them much more easily than other species, fertility for a wild-caught adult female is never an issue.

 

[hibiscusmile]

:lol: see, I know nothing! (said like sgt. schultzs)

 

[Mantida]

Oh god, yes I did hot glue the oothcae.

Lesson learned, I guess. Hopefully she still lays and some more eggs survived....

 

[Mantida]

Orin, I have a hygrometer upstairs that measures the humidity of the room and I have a humidifier running to fight the heater and keep upstairs at least 35% humidity. I don't think it's an issue because I've hatched out 3 species, all laid and hatched in the winter. Right now, I suspect the hot glue issue is the biggest. I was always careful to put a very thin layer and wait a couple seconds for it to cool down before sticking the ooth on lightly - but I guess it was still fatal for most of the eggs. I've always used hot glue though, I guess this species is extra sensitive. All I can do is wait... perhaps more eggs survived in the later ootheca.

I have one more question for you Orin - are these guys supposedly burst hatchers?

 

[Orin]

Smaller oothecae should be more vulnerable to low humidity, 35% isn't very high. A lot of species have rather massive oothecae and if you kill the bottom layer of eggs with hot glue you may never even notice, Oligonicella have only one layer. I reared them a while back and remember good hatch rates but only a dozen or so per oothecae.