Exotic mantis life cycle question

[cloud jaguar]

I live in CA where the fall does not set in for a bit yet. I realize that the local mantids around here will die off with the chill of fall. Hence, it appears that breeders of mantises native to US are currently only selling mostly adults.

However, it appears that more exotic ones are being sold as nymphs so I assume they are all bound by different life cycles based on where they are from? or it does not matter since they are born in captivity? I am truly confused about this and would appreciate it if someone in the know cleared it up for me. Thanks

~Arkanis

 

[Rick]

Nearly all of those you buy off of this boad for example are going to be captive bred. It does not matter what their cycles are where they are from because in captivity they are indoors. One guy on the east coast might have adult orchids and another guy in the midwest might have ooths while somebody else might have nymphs. Very simple really. But the same thing applies to US mantids keep indoors. If I find a chinese ooth outside and hatch it out during the witner the nymphs are going to be adult way before those in the wild. If I kept some of them and bred them they would continue their lives based on when they were born and raised which is all indoors. It wouldn't matter what the mantids outside are doing. I hope that makes sense.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Yept Ricks right!

 

[Christian]

Well, it's not as easy as this, as some species don't breed in the longterm if they aren't offered their natural life cycle. The introduced US species are a bad example because, as introduced species, they are somewhat outside their natural climate. It also depends on the time you remove the ooth from the outside. Diapausing species need a trigger (duration of daytime, not temperature!), once diapause has begun, the ooth will not hatch until spring (in M. religiosa). T. sinensis is mainly a subtropical species and as such possessing a more variable life cycle. The diapausing behavior of sinensis ooths still remains to be tested.