Gongylus gongylodes

[massaman]

is there not a problem that the nymphs could fall in the open container of fruit flies and maybe die or get stuck the medium?

 

[ABbuggin]

is there not a problem that the nymphs could fall in the open container of fruit flies and maybe die or get stuck the medium?

Nope. I made sure to put a lot of grass inside of the culture. If the mantids are hungry enough, they actually go hunting inside the grass. :lol:

I have never had one mantis get stuck and I've been using this method for almost a year.

 

[ABbuggin]

Got board today, so I took a few pics while taking care of my gongies for the day. B) Can't wait until its warm enough outside to get some shots with some natural light in them instead of a flash.

Some of my first off spring are 4th instar.

When they are about to lay an ooth, they get VERY fat. :lol:

Laying fertile ooth #27

Notice the little dot on her leg lobe? I do this so that I can tell which ones have been mated.

 

[yeatzee]

what do you mark her with?

 

[ABbuggin]

I just made a little dot with a sharpie on the inside section of the lobe. You can't see it unless you look for it and it keeps me from mating a fertile female before an infertile one.

 

[yeatzee]

thats actually pretty brilliant! :lol:

 

[ABbuggin]

Well considering they basically all look the same, I didn't want to try and "remember"' which ones were already fertile! :lol:

 

[yen_saw]

You keep all the adult female (mated or not) together Andrew? Once adult i separate each female in each large container but keep group of male together. I let each female in with the cage and once mated i set the female in individual net cage instead of marking her cos i need to preserve her in the future . But i can see why you keep them together you have WAY too many. I hope you're aware that each mated female is capable of laying an ooth every 3-4 days!! :blink: My guess is you have loads of net cages right now

 

[ABbuggin]

I keep all the females in one cage, and the males in another.

Lol, I'd love to do it that way Yen, but when your bedroom that you share with your brother is your bug room, well space isn't of an abundance. They do lay ooths frequently, in fact, I've had 5 laid between today and yesterday. :blink:

 

[Rick]

That culture of flies doesn't dry up?

 

[yen_saw]

I keep all the females in one cage, and the males in another. Lol, I'd love to do it that way Yen, but when your bedroom that you share with your brother is your bug room, well space isn't of an abundance. They do lay ooths frequently, in fact, I've had 5 laid between today and yesterday. :blink:

yeah i understand the space issue this species is huge, thank god they can be kept together. That's lot of ooth in a day!! watch out for 100 nymphs hatching out a month later :lol: I have only 2 mated female on my first batch a month or two ago and i was overwhelm with the ooth production, now my second batch have grown into adult and starting to mate too this time there are 6 females. Craig must have created a mass-produced violin trait I have never seen that many violin here in the USA before :blink: .

 

[ABbuggin]

That culture of flies doesn't dry up?

It does dry up a little sooner than a normal culture, but I put it in the coolest spot.

yeah i understand the space issue this species is huge, thank god they can be kept together. That's lot of ooth in a day!! watch out for 100 nymphs hatching out a month later :lol: I have only 2 mated female on my first batch a month or two ago and i was overwhelm with the ooth production, now my second batch have grown into adult and starting to mate too this time there are 6 females. Craig must have created a mass-produced violin trait I have never seen that many violin here in the USA before :blink: .

I agree, they are big. I have one female that is over 95mm (nearly 4")! What's scary is I still have 3-4 females that are infertile. :blink: I've just been waiting for a few males to mature. This is for sure the most violin "populus" year for the USA that I've seen so far. So many people have them now!

 

[yen_saw]

I agree, they are big. I have one female that is over 95mm (nearly 4")! What's scary is I still have 3-4 females that are infertile. :blink: I've just been waiting for a few males to mature. This is for sure the most violin "populus" year for the USA that I've seen so far. So many people have them now!

wow you have a monster! 9 cm is the biggest for me. She will be preserved. If you don't keep her when she passed please let me know I also have couple of subadult males and some adult males, but now i know where to look for if i ran out of male likewise if you need any let me know.

 

[massaman]

the two I got from yen are neat to look at at have molted to l3 but if they make it to sub adult will look around for males I think both are females!

 

[yeatzee]

This is for sure the most violin "populus" year for the USA that I've seen so far. So many people have them now!

Glad to be part of this years violin keepers

 

[ABbuggin]

wow you have a monster! 9 cm is the biggest for me. She will be preserved. If you don't keep her when she passed please let me know I also have couple of subadult males and some adult males, but now i know where to look for if i ran out of male likewise if you need any let me know.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be fine though, I just had a male mature, and three more will soon shed. I'm all set for males and females. I certainly don't need anymore females right now! :lol: I will be preserving the biggest female for sure! She is a big very dark brownie. I need to properly measure her when she is fully fat to really see how long she truly is. She measured 95mm right after shedding, she wasn't even fat then! :blink:

Here's an old pic of here on my hand:

Yen have you noticed how gongys like to nibble on a sibling's legs when they shed? I've had this happen a few times when I ran low on flies. This resulted in a few 4 legged mantids (both on the same side!). :lol: Shockingly, this never held them up and they continued to shed like normal and eventually grew them both back! :blink:

 

[yen_saw]

Yen have you noticed how gongys like to nibble on a sibling's legs when they shed? I've had this happen a few times when I ran low on flies. This resulted in a few 4 legged mantids (both on the same side!). :lol: Shockingly, this never held them up and they continued to shed like normal and eventually grew them both back! :blink:

wow that's huge! Glad to know you will preserve her, she's a beauty! I haven't noticed the leg nibbling yet so far there is only one female lost one of her legs but i think it happened during a mismolt. Maybe your violin was thirsty and try to take a sip on moisture from the freshly molt violin but ends up taking a piece of it instead. I would mist them more often if that happen. This species consumes lot of flies so i have never let the fly quantity stay low in the cage.

 

[ABbuggin]

wow that's huge! Glad to know you will preserve her, she's a beauty! I haven't noticed the leg nibbling yet so far there is only one female lost one of her legs but i think it happened during a mismolt. Maybe your violin was thirsty and try to take a sip on moisture from the freshly molt violin but ends up taking a piece of it instead. I would mist them more often if that happen. This species consumes lot of flies so i have never let the fly quantity stay low in the cage.

Good idea, I'll give that a shot and see what happens. I've only noticed it though when my flies wouldn't hatch and I was waiting on a late shipment to show up. It's only happened a few times so who knows what really happened.

If you want, I can send you my specimens when they are dead. I'm only going to be preserving a few. (I still have the specimens from my last failed attempt from 2009)

 

[yen_saw]

Good idea, I'll give that a shot and see what happens. I've only noticed it though when my flies wouldn't hatch and I was waiting on a late shipment to show up. It's only happened a few times so who knows what really happened. If you want, I can send you my specimens when they are dead. I'm only going to be preserving a few. (I still have the specimens from my last failed attempt from 2009)

Thank for the offer Andrew i have enough for the dead collection right now i am likely to stop breeding after this batch hope you and the rest will carry on the flag Glad to know you did it this time my last attempt back in 2006 only produced few nymphs.

 

[ABbuggin]

Haha, Yen you were right. I have had 6 ooths (one hatched each day in a row) hatch with apprx 30 nymphs out of each. I have a lot of babies right now, with plenty other ooths still incubating. :blink: