Hymenopus coronatus

[Ranitomeya]

My second attempt at keeping Hymenopus coronatus. The previous attempt didn't go too well when most of mine died in the care of my friend while I had to go out of town for a month.

2nd Instar after unpacking


Molted to 3rd instar 4 days later.


Molted to 4th instar 9 days after unpacking



Molted to 5th instar 17 days after unpacking



Molted to 6th instar 25 days after unpacking


The females are all fifth and sixth instars and the males are still fourth instars. They've all been fed almost exclusively on cockroaches that are fed on a diet of assorted fruits and pollen mixed with sugar water.

 

[dmina]

Oh my... they are really growing fast... You must have some yummy roaches there! great job.. Thanks for sharing..

 

[Ranitomeya]

I definitely don't remember the ones I kept previously growing this quickly, but they were fed on hydei fruit flies until their fifth instar. I'm willing to guess that fruit flies aren't the most nutritious since I remember quite a lot more poop being expelled for my previous orchids while these ones barely poop at all on a diet of very well-fed roaches.

 

[Brunneria]

They look beautiful! Love the colors on these

 

[Ranitomeya]

7th instar 36 days after unpacking. It's the freshly molted individual with small amounts of pink on the right. Also in the picture is a 6th instar with yellow coloration on the left and a plain white one on the bottom for comparison.

 

[dmina]

They are beautiful.. One of my favorites... my girl thought she was a bada$$...



I hope you don't mind me posting her here... but I hope it gives you something to look forward to...

 

[Ranitomeya]

That's one big mayfly!

 

[Ghost_Keeper]

I always bring my exotic pets with me on trips so they don't get killed by my friends / family

 

[dmina]

That's one big mayfly!

Yes, it was...( I also think it was the angle, I took the pic) but she took care of it quickly! LOL

 

[Ranitomeya]

Unfortunately, I was going on a trip to another country. Taking them with me was not an option and I did still end up with an adult pair. The female ended up dying to an unknown infection before she laid an ootheca. I suspect it was due to my less hygenic feeder-keeping practices at the time.

 

[Sticky]

That would be an interesting calendar picture!

 

[Ranitomeya]

Eighth instar, subadult 49 days after unpacking. They've been kept in 5.5 oz cups, but I'll be moving them to 32 oz cups as they all molt to 8th instars. I already moved this one in anticipation of a molt since their last molts already had them touching the bottoms of their 5.5 oz cups.

 

[ethanblaze1017]

Keep us updated on that molt to adult man! Can't believe how fast they've grown. Truly incredible.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Subadult pair. The male's getting swollen wing buds and should be molting into an adult some time this week.


The female went ahead and pooped when I took this photo.



This male's gotten some nice reddish pink coloration on his legs. The transparent fringe on the lobes of his legs makes it look as though he moved in the photo, but he was perfectly still.

 

[dmina]

Beautiful photo's and mantis... They are maturing so quickly..

Can I ask what temp and humidity you have them at?

Thanks for sharing...

 

[Ranitomeya]

The males are unheated at whatever the temperature in my room is and the females are at around the mid to high 80s. The temperatures fluctuate throughout the day, but the males should be getting around room temperature and maybe a bit below that. The humidity isn't monitored, but I wet the piece of paper towel glued to their lid every other day. They're also provided some sugar water every couple of days to mimic capturing bees that have full crops of nectar and they drink a lot of that instead of water.

 

[dmina]

Good job... They are beautiful... Thanks for sharing... I have been keeping mine upper 70's.. I might bump the temp a little...

 

[Ranitomeya]

The first female to molt into an adult did so today, just 72 days after receiving it as an L2.
It has yet to expand its wings and I'll take a picture after it has expanded them and hardened.

 

[twolfe]

A couple of those images you posted on 10/28 would have made a nice addition to the annual forum calendar. Please consider submitting next year!! Good luck breeding yours. It's one species I haven't had luck with.