Guess whose coming to dinner?

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MantidLord

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Okay, so I've been keeping my I. oratoria nymphs in the same jar, and have been dumping aphids in the container. Now in the beginning, I put a piece of the plant that the aphids were on, inside the container in order for the aphids to stay alive. This was last week.

A couple of days later, I noticed this sluggish, long creature that looked like some type of larvae sitting on one of the plants. It looked old and dusty, so I left it there. Then, yesterday, I noticed the creature again...but this time it was moving. At first I watched it wandering around, anxious to witness the inevitable encounter between it and one of the mantids. When it did reach a nymph, the nymph swat at it and the creature turned around. After wandering for a little while longer, the creature came upon some aphids. Immediately, the creature picked up one of the aphids with these pincers at the tip of its mouth and slowly began devouring it.

At first, I feared it was a ladybug nymph. It sort of looked like one, though I've never seen one with the pincers. I had a bad experience where a ladybug devoured 20 of my chinese nymphs. Since then I've despised them for this. So I thought whether or not to take the creature out. But I thought, if it were a ladybug, it would have devoured both mantids and aphids without hesitation, so I turned to the world wide web.

Coincidentally, I had been looking up bugs that I've seen around my garden. One of them being lacewings. I knew that lacewings devoured aphids, and they're larvae forms were as effective as ladybugs. But I had never seen a lacewing larvae so I was confused. Then I typed up "lacewing larvae" on google and saw this:

http://www.ladybugindoorgardens.com/image/...wing_larvae.jpg

Notice how the pincers are holding the aphid in the air. So, I decided to let it sit in the enclosure for now. It's inactive most of the time, and it doesn't bother the aphids. I know it is competing with the mantids for food, but I don't really mind that. So my question is, if left undisturbed, will the lacewing larvae start eating the nymphs especially if food runs out? Or will the coexist untill one of them dies or until one of them matures and eats the other?

P.S. It's "Gues Who's Coming to Dinner?" Sorry about that. :D

 
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ANother site I really like to ID things is www.bugguide.net

 
Hmmm.... interesting! I guess if you have enough mantids, and keep a close eye on what goes on so that you can take him out if he starts chowing down on them... I might think about just keeping him in there for now. I thought I'd heard Lacewings are a good mantis food. It's still a larvae, and likely won't grow bigger than your mantids will. Seems to me, the Lacewing will likely be dinner before it starts eating mantids. But I'm just guessing here. ;) To positively prevent it eating any mantids, you can just take it out. Let us know your results if you keep him in there.... ;)

 
Well, there won't be any need for that. Today after school, I separated my nymphs. I looked everywhere, and I couldn't find the larvae. I had soil as a substrate, so maybe it died and blended in with it. But I checked all the twigs and stuff, and came up empty. :huh: I don't know, maybe he starved to death. Even though I had aphids in the container, it was probably far less that what he would have gotten in the wild. If he would have molted into an adult lacewing, I would have taken him out. I've fed lacewings to L5 mantids, but hatchings are just way too small. But anyway, I guess our mysterious guest disappeared as strangely as he appeared. I'm a little bummed out though, especially if it was me who killed him.

Oh, and thanks for the site Rick. :D

 
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Ok, so Monday, I'm talking on the phone, and I look into the now empty container where I once housed all the nymphs before separating them, and there it was! a full grown lacewing on the side of the jar, just resting there! It completely caught me by surprise. I hadn't seen the thing in like a week, and just left it there in the soil (where I thought it was dead) with no aphids whatsoever. So now it lives in that container with one L4 (my largest) mantis. The lacewing is a tad bit longer than it. They've only come in to contact once, and the mantis dead a threat posture and the lacwing curled its abdomen. At first I thought they mistook eachother for the same species, since they're the same color and look pretty identical minus the raptoral arms and wings. I dumped some aphids in there today, and the lacewing went to town. Hopefully I can keep it alive until the mantis can grow large enough to eat it. Until then, another pet and another mouth to feed. :lol:

 
PhilinYuma said:
Very cool story. Keep us up to date. Maybe the lacewing will turn the tables and eat the mantis! :D
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Ahahaha. :lol: Geez I hope not. Is they're a lacewing godess I can pray to for mercy? ;) The lacewing pretty much sits there until it starts prowling for aphids. And it's pretty darn good at finding them too! :blink: But I'll keep you guys updated.

 

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