Dead leaf mantis

[yen_saw]

This is very exciting Yen! Congratulations my friend!

Thanks Mikhails!!

This has always been a favorite species of mine. For some reason it's the most artistically pleasing I think from a cryptic point of view. I hope you have better luck with this new stock Yen, and continue to get them going for years to come. A full three weeks after mating comes the ooth, hunh? How many ooths do you think she's good for?

Yeah i hope so spawn. Female can produce 5-8 ooth.

My second female is laying ooth as i type right now.

30 minutes later

45 minutes late

boy i am too tire to follow so i will let her continue her deed quietly... maybe it is me disturbing her so she is taking her own sweet time.

 

[Christian]

Hi.

The ooths look both infertile. The ooths of this species have to be smooth and "well-shaped". I breed this species for a couple of years now and never had any hatch out of ooths that looked like those on the photos. Please try another mating attempt, if you have males left. However, keep on incubating them, you should never give up an ooth. Maybe I am wrong in your case.

Regards,

Christian

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks for letting me know CHristian. This is the ooth when it is done. It does appear to be similar "shape" as the previous one.

I still have the adult male, will mate them again. I have seen the D. lobata ooth from the museum which hatched out ok, it does look smoother and wider too as follow.

 

[Rob Byatt]

Good luck with this species, you will find that you won't want to get rid of it once you have bred it sucessfully

They have been in the cage for 2 days and nothing happen. Today, the male finally decided to climb on the female so i was hoping something good will happen.

This is quite normal for this species. In 3 years of breeding D. lobata I have only once witnessed a male mount a female instantly, normally they will follow her aroung the cage for a few days.

Remember to incubate the ootheca as you would with Hymenopus coronatus and expect a large hatch in a shorter time than you expect

 

[yen_saw]

Female of this species appear to guard on the ooth for a whle. I was thinking to measure the ooth and tried to take her away with another stick but she just doesn't want to leave. So i have to take the pic together with her guarding the ooth I hope she will start to feed soon i am going to mate both female again as i trust Christian is correct in this case.

 

[yen_saw]

"Reloading" both female for second round of mating

 

[yen_saw]

Andrew, want to let you know your adult male is doing great!! hope he keeps his head and able to mate with both females. I have posted it on your blog too. finger crossed.

 

[Morpheus uk]

Cant weight for the return of my babies and thier orchid friends Rob

My ooth though not as large looked like that and hatched 70 nymphs :huh:

 

[Andrew]

I'm relieved to see he's doing so well! Fingers crossed he gets the job done right. B)

 

[yen_saw]

Cant weight for the return of my babies and thier orchid friends Rob My ooth though not as large looked like that and hatched 70 nymphs :huh:

Unfortunately larger ooth doesn't necessarily means fertile or good in my case, i am still incubating the first ooth hoping for the best.

I'm relieved to see he's doing so well! Fingers crossed he gets the job done right. B)

He was trying to connect yesterday, female is well fed so hopefully that will save his head. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Yen, my ooths look just like yours, this is a species that make me :angry: ! Very hard to mate. I have lost more heads than u want to know, and yes they do not want to give up the ooth. Humpt! Time to buy more!, Ooths, not heads <_<

 

[yen_saw]

Aww bummer Becky, did you leave your male with the female overnight? don't give up you never know.

 

[yen_saw]

Glad i didn't give up the ooth, the subsequent ootheca from re-mated female finally hatched. Must be about 120-140 of them. Moving them to a larger cage is a real pain they "run" around like mad. A good way to contain them is to mist them with water, and while they stay still for 5 second drinking, remove the lid and shake them all into a larger cage. (Lesson learn, will leave the ooth in a larger cage in the future, didn't expect them to be this big at hatchling) As i am not going to breed for another generation, this will appear on the ad fairly soon.

 

[Andrew]

Congratulations!! Shame you won't be raising another generation of them though. Fingers crossed people will have good success with the babies, you've got quite a few of them.

 

[albedoa]

Glad i didn't give up the ooth, the subsequent ootheca from re-mated female finally hatched.

You selling any of them?

Edit: Whoops, see your post in buy/trade. PM sent.