Sheldon Johnson
Well-known member
Actually Rob, if i recall, Martin didnt come through for you and it was my last male that i sent to you...
Giant Shield mantis - Rhombodera sp.
- Thread starter yen_saw
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Rob Byatt
Well-known member
Damn it, you are right. I'm losing the plot mate :roll: Sorry and thanks !
Sheldon Johnson
Well-known member
The point being Yen, is that between the 3 of us; Rob, Myself and Martin, we all failed at similar times due to some horrible weather, so be very careful. I guess it wont be as big of a problem in the US, but you have been warned!
I have heard that they can take up to 2 weeks to finish hatching!
That was too bad.... Houston weather is pretty warm being close to Gulf of Mexico. From May to September, temperature almost never drop below 70F, heat might be an issue instead with 100F (very common) during August. But i hope some will mature into adult before the next winter sets in.
I will be able to learn from this batch and hopefully have some for sell when the next batch is available.
I have no idea about the hatching pattern for Rhombodera sp. but doubt it will take that long. Stagmomantis sp can take as long as 2 week to hatch though. I just got home today (thrid day) and found total of 40+ nymphs hatched out, so combined with the 60+ from yesterday and a day before. It is ~100-110 nymphs total. My guess is it is done hatching.
That's good, it seems like you had a good hatch rate.
I was wrong, it continued to hatch yesterday evening. But i can see some hatchling stucked at the ootheca so that may indicate sign of the end. i am separating them into 2 groups (about 70+ each) with two different conditions. One with higher T and H, and another with lower T and H. So far the one with higher T is doing well, i suspect it is from the lowland species. They are greedy bunch and will continue to killl even with full tummy. :shock:
I've seen this before, whenever I thought a certain ooth was thru hatching and i was going to throw it out..."lo & behold" there were more hatching. I wait forever now... or close to it. :lol:
The second ooth hatched out few days ago! This time it is all out bursting type hatching. The hatchling from first ooth are all at L3 now (going to L4 soon), the shield is not developed yet, looking forward to see one soon. I have put more details in my webpage under following link
http://www.usamantis.com/shield_log.html
L3 nymph
http://www.usamantis.com/shield_log.html
L3 nymph
Ben.M
Well-known member
Some day i will hav this species as they are so interesting and beautiful to look at
This species turn out to be one of the easiest so far. Basically plenty of food and spray daily and they will be happy as can be! Temperature will only affect the growth but they can take extreme temp. between 100F and 65F without any casualty. Some of them grow pretty fast and is L4 now. They are basically green but some are jade green, yellowish green, dark green, etc. Some have purple legs and other has bluish green head. The shield is just beginning to show but it should be more obvious after next molt. Will keep the updating here. Below are two different L4 specimen. They are still very little right now so hopefully the shield will grow as their body length increase.
Birdfly
Well-known member
Thats an interesting colour Yen, the young nymph on your thumb, almost orange. Have you found any others deviating from green?
Hi Birdfly, they are green basically but some shows darker and lighter color such as yellowish and bluish besides the green. Lets hope your specimen will turn out to be a colorful group as well.
Birdfly
Well-known member
Im sure they will Yen, thanks, they've moulted up an instar since they arrived, Only the faintest sign of a developing shield too. I must admit, im quite looking forward to seeing them as adults, but am still enjoying them as small nymphs.
cheers.
cheers.
Well I am not a very patient person, if it helps by stretching their pronotum by hand, i would do that to "speed-up" the process :lol: After another molt, i can finally see shield with my naked eye, yay! :lol: this species does not grow up very quickly even after 4-5 molt, i guess it is compensating the development on the shield, i hope they will explode in size on the coming few molts, both on the length and the shield size..... very wishful thinking i know.
Some of the nymphs have larger shield than the other, i wonder if that could help me in se-xing this species. I caught one that is closest to the zipper on the net cage (so not to allow any flies escaping!), this one has the average size shield. It has body length of only about 1.5 inch
Some of the nymphs have larger shield than the other, i wonder if that could help me in se-xing this species. I caught one that is closest to the zipper on the net cage (so not to allow any flies escaping!), this one has the average size shield. It has body length of only about 1.5 inch
Ian
Well-known member
Starting to look more like a Rhombodera now Yen
Do you have no clue what species this could be?
Do you have no clue what species this could be?
No clue buddy unfortunately!! was advised to use Rhombodera sp for now. I will send an adult specimen to Christian for identification, i have many of them although still keeping them together, hopefully i can get some adults from this species, it could be R. Valida if the shield turn out to be larger than the wild caught adult female, but i have seen many coloration of this species so far so it is hard to tell
Here is another one that molted for the fifth time.
Asa
Well-known member
I stink at getting them to molt correctly. Good pictures .
.
wuwu
Well-known member
i started off with 23, but i'm down to 19 now. 1 died from a mismolt, even though i mist everyday. 1 died from unknown reasons and 2 got eaten. due to their small size at L2/L3, i figured 2 per 32 oz. room was more than enough room, especially since i fed them plenty of fruitflies each day. guess i was wrong. :x
now i separated them all to 1 per 32 oz. container. now i just need to hope no others die from mismolting or unknown reasons.
