Hymenopus, coronatus

[Rick]

Good news Andrew. The tapping is cool. Very loud. If you're lucky he will mate instead of sitting on her back for a week.

 

[ABbuggin]

They are mating as of now.

 

[Katnapper]

They are mating as of now.

 

[khabirun]

Congrats dude.

 

[ABbuggin]

Thanks.

 

[hibiscusmile]

u the man Andrew!

 

[ABbuggin]

u the man Andrew!

Ha ha, hardly. I think the orchid male is the man! They are done mating now. I think I remember people saying the males will stay on the females for a while after mating. I'll go ahead an remove him and re-mate the female in a few days just for good measure. I'll be pairing up my second pair tomorrow. B)

 

[sufistic]

That's fantastic Andrew, congrats!

 

[Rick]

What did you do? My last tries were nothing but the male riding on her back days on end catching flies.

 

[ABbuggin]

I really didn't do anything special. I took the female out of her cage and had the male on my finger. He was VERY eager to get on top of her and jumped on himself. After a few hours of tapping he connected with her. I never saw the initial connection because I was outside enjoying the 7" of snow since we almost never get any.

 

[kamakiri]

Good to hear! Mine are about 2-3 weeks behind yours...can't wait!

 

[ABbuggin]

2nd pair mated today!!!

 

[yen_saw]

Congrate Andrew!! We want to see lot of orchid available here

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Congrate Andrew!! We want to see lot of orchid available here

DITTO times fifty!

Orchids are so cute!

 

[ABbuggin]

Decided to take a few pics of the girls today since there was snow on the ground, yet it was 65 degrees outside. :blink: It made for some odd pictures!

And I also found this little guy sitting on the snow!! He has obviously hatched this year, he is at least 3rd or 4th instar! I don't know how he has survived the freezing temperatures! We went as low as 15 degrees a few days ago. :blink:

 

[sufistic]

Orchids are such posers! Good pics Andrew!

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Congratulations and great shots! It seems we both are having success with this amazing species.

Thanks again

Mikhail

 

[[email protected]]

So cool!!! Crazy all that snow!

 

[kamakiri]

Orchids in the snow...what a cool idea! You should save some of those for next year's calendar.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

And I also found this little guy sitting on the snow!! He has obviously hatched this year, he is at least 3rd or 4th instar! I don't know how he has survived the freezing temperatures! We went as low as 15 degrees a few days ago. :blink:

That's probably a Carolina grasshopper. They hatch out early, sometimes too early. This one is probably first or second instar and hatched close to the day it was warm out - if you have several warm days in a row, you'll get some early birds (or early hoppers). Grasshoppers don't have as many instars as mantises, they molt 5 times. Also, I think Carolina hoppers may be able to survive sub-freezing temperatures. I always see them emerge early on and they are among the first hoppers to reach adulthood - but not the first, there is this green banded-wing hopper that I've found as adults in May, which would entail a March hatching probably. Also, sometimes Carolina hoppers have two generations in a year, I'll see nymphs emerge in September and October sometimes.

I saw one on December 31 of 2008 when I went to Alabama a year ago (not this past trip though - I did look), it was over 70 one day, which probably caused the early hatching.

Now I'm going to get Nectarine (My lovable lubber) out of her cage and let her sit on my keyboard now that you got me thinking of grasshoppers :3