Hello all, New enthusiast from Southern California

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heylookitscaps

heylookitscaps

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Hey everyone,

My name is Chris and im a 27 year old from the Inland Empire. Me and my girlfriend found a beautiful whitish/yellow California Mantis on September 4th

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since then we have kept her in a 3 gallon bow front fish tank that I used to house a nano-reef in. She is very friendly, never flies, and prefers to be held over being left alone.

The reason I joined this forum is this little gal has been a real joy to care for and watch. Renee (my girlfriend) came in screaming that our bug was dying last night. I am studying Geology in college so my biology knowledge is fairly strong and as I took a closer look I realized exactly what was happening....

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EGGS!

I know that an ooth can be unfertilized, but what im curious about is how long a California Mantis gestation period is. Is it possible that we captured a pregnant mantis? Im going to attempt to incubate and hatch the ooth regardless, but was really hoping to get some insight from the Mantid gurus.

Also here is a video if anyone is interested, I put moonlight sonata over it because there was a lot of random chatter and noise. Enjoy

Thanks in advance for anything and welcoming me to the board!

 
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welcome, from LA. That's either a stagmomantis limbata, or a californica. I hope she mated in the wild before you found her!

 
Nice! My brother lives in the Valley, I love LA. thanks for the ID, from what i gathered my guess was a californica. Im no professor in land based mantids though. I have studied and cared for mantis shrimps while in college and as a hobby a few yearss back, but thats a whole different ball game.

Im hoping the same! Would be nice to continue on with our little legacy.

 
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Welcome to the forum! Nice girl you have there, she looks like (what mike said) A stagmomantis limbata or stagmomantis California...all the best with her ooth (if it is fertilized).. if it turns out to be a dud, you can probably find a nice guy for her on the forum ;)

All the best,

Andrew

 
Chris: Nice find I will say that. I have not had the joy of finding a wild mantis. The species that you have there, is not familiar to me from experience, but generally there are no more than seven instars or eight. So by virtue of the fact the the little lady is laying an ooth, she is adult and therefore at least L-7. There are no more molts for her. The other thing that might be done to save you some grief to determine the fertility of the ooth: 1) That type of mantis has usually a large amount of eggs, so... 2) you can use an exacto knife and cut it at one end well enough inward from the end so that you are in the egg cell area of the ooth 3) if it is fertile, you will see the cross sections of the eggs that you cut through, if it is fertile. 4) If it is just seal up the ooth again with the severed end going right back where it was so that there is no moisture lost. If it is not fertile, you will see no eggs, which are often quite dark, and more so as it gets older. If it is infertile, your lady has more time to get a head start on mating. If you wait the full term to find out, you lost the time it takes to procure he a partner. These are just my thoughts from a Bio major from Cal Poly SLO. Welcome to you from another SoCal resident (Carson).

 
I watched her build the ooth from start. Within the ooth I saw oblong orangish yellow "cells" being placed in neat rows. I got really lucky as she laid it right next to the glass for easy viewing. Does that help your guess at all?

 
Rich S said:
Chris: Nice find I will say that. I have not had the joy of finding a wild mantis. The species that you have there, is not familiar to me from experience, but generally there are no more than seven instars or eight. So by virtue of the fact the the little lady is laying an ooth, she is adult and therefore at least L-7. There are no more molts for her. The other thing that might be done to save you some grief to determine the fertility of the ooth: 1) That type of mantis has usually a large amount of eggs, so... 2) you can use an exacto knife and cut it at one end well enough inward from the end so that you are in the egg cell area of the ooth 3) if it is fertile, you will see the cross sections of the eggs that you cut through, if it is fertile. 4) If it is just seal up the ooth again with the severed end going right back where it was so that there is no moisture lost. If it is not fertile, you will see no eggs, which are often quite dark, and more so as it gets older. If it is infertile, your lady has more time to get a head start on mating. If you wait the full term to find out, you lost the time it takes to procure he a partner. These are just my thoughts from a Bio major from Cal Poly SLO. Welcome to you from another SoCal resident (Carson).
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Welcome

There is no need to cut into the ooth at this point. The inside of a new infertile ooth looks just like the inside of a fertile one. There are eggs either way. Since she is wild caught most likely it is fertile. Leave it be for awhile and see if it hatches. I'm betting it does. If you cut it you will kill all of the eggs near the cut area.

 
I stand corrected by Rick. Without the ability to see microscopically as we did in Entomology class, one cannot tell if the eggs have begun to develope into an embryo. This method works good only when one has given up on an ooth and wants to proove fertility or infertility. A far as loosing eggs when the hatch count is as high as it is with some of the Chinese mantids and the like, there is not much of a loss.

 
Welcome! Looks like S. limbata to me (I've had quite a few). if you wanted to gently lift her top wing and take a pic of her underwing, we could provide a sure ID. :)

 

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