Giant Shield mantis - Rhombodera sp.

[Asa]

I would be happy to steal your male away, but my females are only L3 and L4. And growing very slowly.

 

[yen_saw]

Wow, nice! Does the shield keep the female from grabbing the male or anything?

I don't think the shield will stop a female to grab the male if she is determined to have him for dinner. I did follow the mating process. The male actually monitored the female for a while, kind of making sure she is not threatening before jumping on her back.

I would be happy to steal your male away, but my females are only L3 and L4. And growing very slowly.

That is strange that your nymphs stay on L3/L4 stage for this long, if you keep them warmer and feed more often, they sould grow up quickly.

i left them together for the night, and they appeared to be just separated this morning. Male is alive!! i will send the male your way Asa if he is still alive after few more pairing ups. I have 7 more adult females to mate, hopefully the other 3 male will do the job with equal success.

 

[Asa]

My house is frigid. It's lucky I'm able to keep the one's I have alive. I'm debating to moving everything to the shed.

 

[yen_saw]

Gez Asa, are you trying to kill your mantis?

The mated female appear to be receptive again so i put another male and they mated promptly.

Now i have two "experience" adult male

 

[Asa]

Gez Asa, are you trying to kill your mantis?

Of course not. I just had an entire shift of everything. It took 5 hours :shock:

Now everybody's at 78 ish.

 

[yen_saw]

Ah good! hopefully you will see some "shield" soon.

 

[Asa]

Yep, I see it now. One molted to L5.

 

[Ian]

Congrats Yen! Good to see you managed to breed these. Let us know how you get on with the ootheca

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks Ian, i hope to see ootheca from the mated female in near future. She is being fed daily, sometimes I wonder how her abdomen can store so much food. I brought her out for some wild insects, but the weather in Houston has been terrible with routine daily rain so not much luck for her finding any, so i took some pics of her instead.

 

[RodG]

Great photos Yen!!! Can't wait to see the ooths and the nymphs that will follow 8)

 

[Asa]

Wow. She does look fat :lol:

 

[Ian]

Wow, she really is bursting! Good work Yen.

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks guys, she can really eat like a pig!! hopefully i will have a pic of ootheca in near future.

 

[OGIGA]

Heh, I hope she doesn't end up escaping.

 

[yen_saw]

Honestly, i was more worry of her dropping than escaping :wink:

Tada..... she laid an ooth this morning!! and now she is back to her aggressive form. The ootheca is HUGE! i would say at least 200 eggs inside that ooth. It has been satisfying so far. Not the toughest species but i would give extra care to the male. Looking forward to complete the "circle" when this ootheca hatches, hopefully by the end of next month or early September.

 

[Asa]

That is pretty big!! Nearly as big as the mantis. Continue to stuff the 'pig' :lol:

 

[RodG]

Great work Yen!!! Looking forward to some nymphs

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Yen,

Thats a beautiful species! I just love seeing what you have going on. 8)

 

[chris hill]

great pics yen. i love hatchling mantids. what are you going to do with that many ?? i always wanted to hatch my own ooth

 

[Ben.M]

Man thats huge , good luck with the nymphs Yen,

And Chris u will some day