Idolo Nymphs L2 now .. anyone at L3 yet ?

[MikhailsDinos]

I had my first L6 molt last night. I have a question? Do the females mature at molt L8 and the males at L7?

Thanks again

Mikhail

 

[mrblue]

I had my first L6 molt last night. I have a question? Do the females mature at molt L8 and the males at L7?Thanks again

Mikhail

EDIT: males moult 8 times, females 9 (so an L9 female is subadult, an L8 male is subadult).

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Ah, okay that makes a lot of sense. So at L6, two more molts for the male and three more for the females?

What molt are yours at the moment? 5 of mine are now L6 and the other 4 are L5. Looks like everything is going well so far.

Thanks again

Mikhail

i THINK L7 males are subadult and L8 females are subadult, but i am only going by the photos on terra typica (they have photos saying "L9 female = subadult" and "L8 male = subadult", but also photos of first instar nymphs labelled as "L2", and second instar nymphs labelled "L3" etc, so i minus one from all their labels, if you get what i mean? heres the link so you can see for yourself: http://ttwebbase.dyndns.org/mantid/view/78.html ).

 

[mrblue]

Ah, okay that makes a lot of sense. So at L6, two more molts for the male and three more for the females? What molt are yours at the moment? 5 of mine are now L6 and the other 4 are L5. Looks like everything is going well so far.

Thanks again

Mikhail

sorry, my mistake! i remember making this same mistake of assuming all the photos are labelled incorrectly, they are not. i just remembered being told by someone who knows for sure that males undergo 8 moults before reaching adulthood, females 9. so an L9 female is indeed subadult, and an L8 male is indeed subadult, and so then at L6, males need 3 more moults, females need 4. hope that helps.

i only have five but they are now all L6 (fifth instar lasted 17 days for me, all previous instars lasted around 12 days each).

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Thank you for the help.

I only have two L5 left. The other 7 are all L6 now. I think the L5 might be L6 tonight? So far the setup I put together is working nicely for this species and I have not had one miss molt to date. Lets hope this keeps on working through their molts.

Thanks again

Mikhail

sorry, my mistake! i remember making this same mistake of assuming all the photos are labelled incorrectly, they are not. i just remembered being told by someone who knows for sure that males undergo 8 moults before reaching adulthood, females 9. so an L9 female is indeed subadult, and an L8 male is indeed subadult, and so then at L6, males need 3 more moults, females need 4. hope that helps.i only have five but they are now all L6 (fifth instar lasted 17 days for me, all previous instars lasted around 12 days each).

 

[mrblue]

this thread has been very quiet lately. got two L7s yesterday, just thought i'd update with a picture for those that don't read my blog.

L7 female (freshly moulted)

how are you US guys doing?

 

[ABbuggin]

nice!

 

[MikhailsDinos]

All 9 are still doing very well and I had 3 of them tern into L7 in the last two days.

Thanks again

Mikhail

 

[Andrew]

How is everyone doing? I have six left and my first one just hit pre subadult the other day.

 

[Birdfly]

Not bad thanks my first adult female from about 36 hours ago approximately.

I had two batches of 1st instars, one batch was nearly 50% smaller than the other batch, this female is from the smaller batch (same amount of stadia though) she is smaller than my largest sub adult from the larger batch, if that makes any sense and is approx 4 inches, 100mm. My largest female is gunna molt up to adult tonight or tomorrow, hopefully

Just measured the pronotal sheild from top point to point (width wise) 33mm in smaller one (adult) and 38mm in larger (sub adult) fairly accurately.

 

[Andrew]

Congrats! Mine are taking their sweet time growing up.

 

[Birdfly]

Correct me if im wrong but i think i got these on or around the 1st of April as a few days old 1st instars and got my first adult 3 or so days ago.

Which is approximately 4 months to maturation

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Very nice birdfly, and congratulations!

All 9 of mine are doing very well and they are now L7 and L8. I look forward to adults.

 

[Andrew]

Got my first subadult the other day. A male.

 

[mrblue]

anyone out there with subs kept together that wants to seperate them for the final moult, look out for this outline around the mantids' lobes/pronotum:

ive noticed this start to happen a week or so before moulting to adult.. also obviously the wing buds swell up like with any other mantis, they also darken in the few days before the moult.

 

[macro junkie]

hows every one getting on with there idolos?