I want to do a science fair

[ABbuggin]

Got ya covered.

Thanks! Since it gets warm in NC a lot sooner than up north, my chinese ooths hatched long ago......

 

[Katnapper]

Thanks! Since it gets warm in NC a lot sooner than up north, my chinese ooths hatched long ago......

I had some off-season adult females still laying up until relatively recently. Only have 1 left now... and she's getting pretty old.

Edit: I just went up and checked on the female. I knew she had one ooth in her net cage she'd laid. It's a small one, but will probably still give you plenty of babies for your project. It's definitely her last one though... she was on the bottom of her cage, and could hardly even move a leg when I picked her up. She's in the freezer now.

I went and looked through the other cages to see if there were any T. sinensis ooths I'd missed. Weren't any others. I might go outside and look in the bushes where I threw those 3 last week... and see if I can find them for you too. No guarantees that they haven't hatched already though! (if I can even find and reach them... that one bush is huge, lol).

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yes, I agree, "no mantis will be harmed in this experiment!" I was thinking more of replacement though. I am sure that you will raise hundreds of gongies, the sale of whose ooths will probably pay your way through college, but you will notice that they are never used in the experiments in the Prete book because labs prefer mantids that are relatively easy to keep in large numbers, like the Chinese I just checked E bay, and you can still by a few outright ("buy now") at a "closeout" price.

Learn from my experience, though. A while back, I said here that I was going to take nine ooths (three each of Carolina, Chinese and European), purchased on Ebay, and set them up in three batches under different conditions of humidity to see if this affected hatching time/rate.. They arrived after having been refrigerated for quite a while. I set them up, and next day eight of the nine ooths hatched, completely ruining my experiment, so if you buy 'em, be ready for a prompt hatch!

I think that using several different species, though, will strengthen your experimental proof.

Good luck!

 

[OGIGA]

Maybe you can do something like "Do female mantises always eat the male after/when mating?" It'll "bust" people's myths.

 

[robo mantis]

I won my science fair with my mantid experiment! The experiment was "At what tempurature will a mantis egg case hatch faster?" I had one in the fridge, one in my basement, and one under a heat lamp upstairs. I already knew the outcome but i still did it! hahaha! I hope it helps. Anyone who wants to use my idea PM me!

 

[ABbuggin]

So far I've received a lot of help from everybody, but I like Phil's idea of prey recognition the best. I am searching for the rules before I go any farther, I want to make sure it wont violate any rules before I really start working on it. (don't see how it would though) I'll make sure to start a thread once I begin, and I'll make sure to keep it updated also.

I've been "churning" a few ideas of what I want to do, once I get everything sorted I'll post my plans.

Thanks all!