I see eyes! (Candling ooths)

[PlayingMantis]

I've always been curious as to how nymphs develop inside eggs. Shining a phone flashlight through an ooth is a really primitive method of seeing if there are eyeballs! Well, it doesn't really tell me much other than the fact that the ooth has developing nymphs. I'm trying to figure out if the appearance of eyes and the "opaqueness" of the individual eggs can help predict the hatch date. I am not running any controlled experiments, because hatch dates are probably affected by external factors such as temperature, humidity, etc.

1) 3 week old C. nebulosa ooth

2) 5.5 week old H. coronatus ooth

3) 2 month old H. coronatus ooth (I really hope the nymphs won't just be "stuck" in the ooth forever...still hoping for a hatch)

I believe that in #2, the eyes/head parts have not fully differentiated yet(?). In #3, you can see two separate black spots, which I believe are parts of the "skull cap" -- don't know if there's a technical terminology for the protective head covering that nymphs use to emerge from the ooth, like shown here: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/230/467067375_31c966a35d.jpg







For additional reading:

(easier reading) http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/library/tutorials/growth_development/embryogenesis.html

(more advanced) http://what-when-how.com/insects/embryogenesis-insects/

 

[jrh3]

How dare you come into there bed room and shine a bright light into there eyes....haha nice photos and good luck with them.

 

[hibiscusmile]

yea, I was surprised to see them, thanks for sharing.