Incubation Success...

[garin33]

ah ok, I thought that you were ditching class so you could mist and feed your thousands of mantids.

I'm sure it takes awhile.

 

[agent A]

ah ok, I thought that you were ditching class so you could mist and feed your thousands of mantids.

I'm sure it takes awhile.

i dont even have 100 :lol:

 

[mantid_mike]

It's been a while since I updated this thread. I had one of my older creo ooths hatch a couple days ago and I honestly wasn't expecting that. Thought it was a dud since it was laid on November 7th. There's about 53 nymphs in these 2 cups:

On another note, my rhombodera stalli girl FINALLY laid an ooth. She's been holding out for a long time, but now I see why. This ooth is HUGE:

I really hope it hatches when I get back from my trip!

 

[garin33]

Hi Mike

Thanks for the update and it gives me hope for a Creo ooth that was laid on Oct. 17th that hasn't hatched yet. However, my house has been pretty cold lately especially in the evenings. Around 67 degrees. So I figured that was probably the reason. I recently put some heat on it to keep it around 80 so hopefully that will help it hatch.

Have a great trip!

 

[aNisip]

Congrats on both events! :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[mantid_mike]

Hi MikeThanks for the update and it gives me hope for a Creo ooth that was laid on Oct. 17th that hasn't hatched yet. However, my house has been pretty cold lately especially in the evenings. Around 67 degrees. So I figured that was probably the reason. I recently put some heat on it to keep it around 80 so hopefully that will help it hatch.

Have a great trip!

I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with the temps. My house has also been really cold but I've been leaving the heater on longer lately. I'm pretty sure you'll have a hatch very soon! Just don't let it dry out.

 

[mantid_mike]

Congrats on both events! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Thanks!

 

[sally]

Thanks. http://mantidforum.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/smile.png I didn't realize that, but it seems like the hatches more less subsequently have gotten bigger: 24, 32, 36, 34, 41. The next batch that i'm expecting is another Creo ooth. It should hatch in the next couple of days. After that, maybe my hymenopus ooth? http://mantidforum.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/clover.gif http://mantidforum.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/clover.gif http://mantidforum.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/clover.gif

 

[sally]

Ooops. Messed up the quote, sorry I was just gonna say those hatch numbers would be good lottery picks

 

[mantid_mike]

Been a while since I last updated. I had to part with a few mantids before my trip so I have a much more manageable collection now. A couple days after I came back I had another creo ooth hatch from my original female. Don't have any pics since I sent them off to another member.

Before I left for my trip, my female ghosts had laid 3 ooths. They must have been incubated for at least 3 weeks before I left. I came back from my trip and still nothing hatched so I was almost positive they were all duds since I had never seen my ghosts mating. A few days ago (Jan. 29th) the first ooth hatched! Good thing I didn't throw them away:

Only 17 nymphs.

Today I had one male hymenopus coronatus molt to adult. I wanted to take a picture of him but from past experiences I know they tend to fly off. Here's my fat sub-adult female instead:

This morning I also had an H. Bipapilla molt to adult sent to me by Rich recently:

Here's my female Popa Spurca that molted to adult on Jan 30th. Lighting wasn't so great and looks more like a silhouette, so I just made this a black&white photo:

...and finally, here's a couple of Oxyopsis Gracilis. This is my first time with this species and I never realized they're so small. I don't really know how much bigger they're going to get and lost track of their instar but they seem a little slow to molt:

 

[mantid_mike]

My female Hymenopus Coronatus molted to adult last night successfully. She's a pretty big girl compared to the female I had a few months back. I'd like to feed her some natural honey for a change. Should I wipe some honey on the BB flies or just feed it to her via a toothpick?? I haven't been so lucky with my adult female orchids. I always screw something up in their diet.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Oxyopsis gracilis aren't very big mantids.

You can either let the flies eat the honey and then feed the flies to her or you can kill/paralyze the flies before dipping them in some honey and offering them to her. Dipping would give her more honey than if you gave her flies that fed on honey.

 

[mantid_mike]

Oxyopsis gracilis aren't very big mantids.

You can either let the flies eat the honey and then feed the flies to her or you can kill/paralyze the flies before dipping them in some honey and offering them to her. Dipping would give her more honey than if you gave her flies that fed on honey.

Yeah, oxys are pretty small. Maybe a tad-bit smaller than ghosts.

I'll try feeding her some honey-dipped flies today. I was going to go to Vons to buy the honey, but now i'm thinking Trader Joe's will be a better option.

 

[mantid_mike]

This morning I found my H. Patellifera girl laying her first ooth. Not sure if it's fertile since I never witnessed her mating wit the male. He was mounted on her for a couple days and then eaten. This happened about a month ago, so that's a pretty long wait for a first ooth.

 

[mantid_mike]

Just another update..I had 13 ghosts hatch out a little over a week ago and another 17 ghosts this morning. Yesterday, I went down to Orange County to visit my parents and decided to scavenge their entire yard for some Stagmomantis Californica ooths. I found way more than I expected:

Some ooths I found felt so dry and airy so I opened them up a little to find some developing nymphs inside. Can't judge an ooth by its cover I guess.

I also found a medium-sized grasshopper so I bottled it up and brought it home with me. It was fed to my H. Bipapilla (H. Patellifera) girl this morning:

 

[mantid_mike]

Awesome day today. Came home to find that two ooths of two different species hatched today...pseudoharpax viriscens and stagmomantis Californica. I'll be posting pics and nymph counts soon.

 

[sally]

I wish I could find such treasures in my yard... The mountain of snow is almost all melted...yay!

 

[mantid_mike]

I wish I could find such treasures in my yard... The mountain of snow is almost all melted...yay!

I wish there was more snow out here! Didn't get to snowboard too much this season.

 

[mantid_mike]

Pseudoharpax Viriscens (14 nymphs):

Stagmomantis Californica (around 40ish nymphs):

 

[Paradoxica]

Nice, I'm still waiting for my pseudoharpax to hatch.