Help with nymph I.D

[Chris drake]

I posted in my introduction to the forum a few weeks ago a pic of an ooth I found here locally in the Houston Tx area. Tonight I found 2 nymphs or something had emerged from the ooth and were walking around the container. These are the size of a sugar ant and already have wings. I believe the ooth is from a carolina mantid. Can anyone help confirm this? I'm very suprised my pics came out as well as they did shooting free hand with a 105mm macro Thanks in advance.

This is the ooth

and these little guys emerging.

Chris

 

[PragmaticHominid]

Err, those aren't mantises. o_0

Maybe some kind of parasitic fly?

 

[Chris drake]

I have been looking at them since i took the pics and believe you are right. The 2 that have hatched out of the ooth are walking around and have not attempted to fly. Are flies taking over an ooth common? You can actually see the 2 spots where they came from the ooth. Now i'm really not sure. This is my first ooth by the way. lol

 

[packer43064]

Within time it will probably try to fly away. Might need a few hours for their wings to harden up. I would put the lid on them ASAP, they might be flying next time you reopen the container.

 

[Rick]

Parasitic wasps. Don't throw the ooth away though as nymphs often still hatch. Kill the wasps or for some payback feed them to a mantis. This is very common. You can expect more of them to hatch. You may notice small round holes in the side of the ooth, at least you do with the type around here.

 

[dgerndt]

Oh no! I knew something was wrong as soon as you said they hatched with wings already. Mantids don't get wings until they're adults. I hope you get some nymphs, not just wasps!

 

[lancaster1313]

Wow, I didn't realize how cute parasitic wasps are, until I saw that first pic. :wub: Not that I would want any of them coming out of one of my oothecae. :mellow:

 

[Chris drake]

lol.. they are kinda cute. There is about 6 of them in the container now. Rick i'm going to leave them in there and let the mantids have at them if I get any.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

The wasps will be to big for your nymphs,and the nymphs that come from that ooth(fingers crossed) will not eat for a day or two. then fruit flies are in order as they don't fight back.

Rick meant if you have any older larger mantis to let them have a go at your unwanted guests. B)

 

[Rick]

Yep. Those mantids won't be able to eat them. If you have bigger mantids feed them with the wasps.