HELP! Mantid Ootheca hatching, but what!!!

[Goodwin]

Hello,

I got sent two Cameroon import Ootheca, I have kept them for around two weeks and sprayed every few days, I now have a few hatchlings but to be honest I dont even know if they are mantid!

They dont have the long arms and have clear wings at this tiny size, their bums are a nice green colour and they are quite active. The rear legs look quite stocky.

I have attahced some pics of the ootheca and of the hatchlings, can someone let me know if these are what I should expect from this ootheca as its an import Im usure what could be hatching out!!!

From the ootheca identification page I think it could be:-

1 Sphodromantis Rubrastigmata (Red Armed African Mantis) ootheca

2 Parasphendale ootheca

3 Idolomantis Diabolica (Devils Flower Mantis) ootheca

4 Polyspilota aeruginosa (Madagascan Marbled Mantis) ootheca

HELP!!!

Thanks,

Craig.

The pictures are poor but they keep moving and have had to take them on my camera phone:-

 

[Rick]

I can't really see em. If they are not mantids what are they? Parastic something maybe?

 

[Goodwin]

I dont know, I will see if I can get a better picture of the little fellas! back in a few minutes.

 

[Mantida]

They have wings?

Then they are not mantids. Mantid nymphs don't have wings prior to hatching. Probably something parastic, perhaps a wasp of some kind. Don't throw the ooth out, just keep spraying and rearing like you always do after you dispose of the parasites and mantids will probably still hatch out.

 

[hogosha]

From the looks of them and you seeing wings on them I would say they are parasitic wasps. If the ooths were wild collected then it's not too uncommon to have a few parasitic wasps planted in there. If they are the wasps then get them out of the container before the mantids start hatching. I know the wasps eat the eggs while they are in the ooth but don't know if they will hurt the mantids after hatching. I wouldn't want to take the chance myself.

Hello,I got sent two Cameroon import Ootheca, I have kept them for around two weeks and sprayed every few days, I now have a few hatchlings but to be honest I dont even know if they are mantid!

They dont have the long arms and have clear wings at this tiny size, their bums are a nice green colour and they are quite active. The rear legs look quite stocky.

I have attahced some pics of the ootheca and of the hatchlings, can someone let me know if these are what I should expect from this ootheca as its an import Im usure what could be hatching out!!!

From the ootheca identification page I think it could be:-

1 Sphodromantis Rubrastigmata (Red Armed African Mantis) ootheca

2 Parasphendale ootheca

3 Idolomantis Diabolica (Devils Flower Mantis) ootheca

4 Polyspilota aeruginosa (Madagascan Marbled Mantis) ootheca

HELP!!!

Thanks,

Craig.

The pictures are poor but they keep moving and have had to take them on my camera phone:-

 

[Goodwin]

Ohhh, that doesnt sound good!

I will get these out, I havent seen anything that I think is a mantid, could this mean that the eggs are already gone?

I have two young children in the house, do these wasps sting/bite? I would rather play things safe.

more pics,

 

[macro junkie]

your pics are not very good..cant tell..look at this link i gave u..does any of these look like your nympths? http://images.google.co.uk/images?sourceid...sa=N&tab=wi

look like this>?

 

[macro junkie]

your in uk..wales..so it cant be wild..where did u get it from buddie?

 

[Rick]

Not mantids! Looks like the little wasps. I would kill them.

 

[Mantida]

The wasps probably haven't eaten all of the eggs, unless there are a whole bunch of the wasps. Your ooth should be fine. It will hatch out less nymphs than normal, but will still hatch a moderate amount of them.

 

[Kruszakus]

Well, this is not the first time something like that happens - I'm afraid that the ooth is lost.

 

[asdsdf]

Kill them all! :blink:

Also, the ootheca isn't neccesarily lost. Those wasp larvae don't kill all of them unless multiple females laid eggs in one. Give it a try.

 

[Moosashi]

Kill them all! :blink: Also, the ootheca isn't neccesarily lost. Those wasp larvae don't kill all of them unless multiple females laid eggs in one. Give it a try.

yeah one of my wild caught carolina ootheca just hatched about 5 tiny parasitic wasps, gradually over 2 days (don't know if it's done yet) but don't know if the mantids are gonna hatch or not. Just gonna keep incubating the ooth and watching. The other ooth that I will keep in the fridge for a few weeks, just put in two days ago, had wasp exit holes when I found it, so I dunno what chance I have of getting mantids out of these but I bet it will turn out alright. I'll post updates on my quest.

 

[Moosashi]

anyone know about how many wasp could hatch out and an ooth still have mantids remaining? Mine has already hatched 10 wasps at least. How many eggs does a single parasitic wasp inject into an ooth?

 

[Borya]

I had about 10 parasitic wasps got out from the wild-caught Hierodula transcaucasica ooth, and after a week or two around 30 nymphs hatched. For Hierodula, that ooth was rather small; I think there were about 50 eggs or even less.

 

[Moosashi]

good, sounds like the parasitic wasp nymphs don't eat very many mantid eggs each. Maybe they use the ooth more just to incubate their own eggs and for them to have a little snack when they hatch out before exiting?

 

[macro junkie]

send them to me i want to macro them :lol:

 

[Goodwin]

Just to update you, the little fellas were wasps or something similar, I removed them from the container.

Yesterday I had a burst of mantids hatch out, and today there are even more!!! I must have over 100 mantids in this container, I just picked up individual tubs for them when Im ready to move them across.

 

[Goodwin]

Now that I have nymph's I wouldnt mind knowing what they are!!

Can anyone from the images identify the ootheca?

From the ootheca identification page I think it could be:-

1 Sphodromantis Rubrastigmata (Red Armed African Mantis) ootheca

2 Parasphendale ootheca

3 Idolomantis Diabolica (Devils Flower Mantis) ootheca

4 Polyspilota aeruginosa (Madagascan Marbled Mantis) ootheca

I will get some pics of the nymph's in a minute and post them up for you to take a look, they will be poor quality again but will get some better ones soon.

Thanks,

Craig.