What kind of confirmation are you looking for on the Carolina mantis multiple generation breeding?Although it's possible nobody has bred M.religiosa or Iris through more than three generations it is because they have no trade or other value and you can only rear so many mantids. I have reared Iris into a second generation and nobody wanted them for trade so I didn't bother for a third. M. religiosa has been reared through a second generation.
I refer to knowing for sure someone who has bred the respective species for more than three generations without introducing new blood. That
Iris and
Mantis are not wanted by anyone does not imply that noone may have tried to breed them, just for the sake of the trial. I also did not say it is not possible, I just consider them more difficult than other species. People should really try it in case they have some spare place. It is always good to have new inputs on factors leading to a continuous vs. diapause-based breeding. You will see then that most tropical species are rather easy.
I've kept Stagmomantis limbata for over three years now in continuous breeding, although with input to my stock from Mike on this forum and Dr. Mike Maxwell in CA. I know, not S. carolina and perhaps somewhat easier to rear, but it must be possible for S. carolina and for S. californica maybe.
St. limbata may best be classified as subtropical, so there aren't the same difficulties to be expected as with temperate ones. Further, due to fresh genetic input, your stock doesn't strictly apply to my definition.
As I said before, there could be differences between different
carolina stocks either, depending on origin.
I think the most difficult are those that are really large (prone )to mismolts in inappropriate containers) and those from humid areas that require high humidity throughout the life cycle (which is often hard to maintain indoors unless you have expensive growth chambers that maintain constant temp. and humidity)
I must disagree here. Large species have to be kept in large containers, but apart of the space requirements, there is no particular difficulty with these ones. If someone hasn't the space for breeding say,
Solygia, he has to refuse to breed this species. But this doesn't mean that the species is hard to breed. In this case, the problems are again to be appointed to the breeder.
The second case is ambivalent. On the one hand it is not a real problem to establish high humidity conditions. Many rainforest species were bred successfully - however, others weren't yet, so there may be some difference in the tolerance of unfavorable conditions. There is still a lot to explore in this regard. I see the problems rather in the combination of high humidity and low temperatures. I mentioned species from these habitats as very problematic.
Idolomantis is also difficult, but mostly because of infertility, inability to exchange stocks to keep up good breeding, and large size. Humidity is less a problem with these...
Infertility in
Idolomantis is a myth. If it occurs, the conditions offered were not optimal. Humidity, and the times when it has to be low or high,
is an issue in this species. Exchanging stocks is not an issue either: if your stock is flourishing, you need no exchange (this also applies to other species). Secondly, this may be more a problem in the US. In Europe, this species is bred rarely but regularly. Large size is not a problem as I pointed out earlier, particularly as they may be raised communally. It needs a lot of space, but this is not an innate problem of the species but of the space availability of the breeder.
OH! I concure!
