Now I am super worried that they dried out!@spider_creations Ideally you should keep the ooth the same as you would the mantids when incubating, which for humidity should be 50-60% RH (or misting the enclosure every other day). If they dried out too much it will only be determined if they hatch or not - as there should be at least some eggs that survived even if affected.
The shock/jolt to the eggs from a fall should have been minimal due to the carpet. I've hatched ooths that handled some rough shipping and they did fine - the box looked like it was dropped onto hard concrete every step here.
There should be at minimum some eggs that survived. How many that will hatch however, there is no way of knowing until they do hatch. I've had some ooths that did not hatch a thing, and others that were kept very dry but seemed to hatch normally.Now I am super worried that they dried out!
Nope, from the 50+ wild ooths I've collected and hatched every single ooth was fertile. The only issue I've come across with wild ooths are parasitic wasps from time to time. The wasps will emerge typically 2 weeks before the remaining mantid nymphs (whose eggs were not eaten by the wasps).
I kept the ooths lie I kept her. Misting her weekly as iris like dryer cages hopefully they hatch out fine.
Thanks. Yeah it would be amazing to get this speices back in the hobby as not to long ago @[email protected] was asking about them, and I haven't seen any for sale in the last few months. Since this speices is in Arizona it should be used to the dryer conditions.Indeed, hopefully you are swarmed with babies. Best of luck.
Iris oratoria is a species acclimated to the arid regions of the southwestern US and Sonoran Desert regions of Mexico. More humid and high altitude climates act as natural barriers for the spread of this species into other habitats. Misting the oothecae would create an unnatural environmental condition for this species, as oothecae collected in the wild would not be exposed to such humidity under natural conditions. When mirroring the natural life cycle of this species, I would only sparingly mist.. if at all. I have successfully reared this species without misting the oothecae at all-- ever.I have two iris ooths from a wild cought female and I am waiting on them to hatch, but wondering how I should care for the ooths. I am misting them weekly to every other week becuase it is a dryer SP. Did I kill the ooths by not misting enough? One ooth is about a week old and the other is about a month old. I also dropped them but they were fully harded and they landed on carpet. Please respond Thanks
Thanks so much glad to hear I can keep this speices dry. Should I put the ooths through diapause or since I have had one for a month and the other for a week are they already starting to develop? Now I am afraid I killed the ooths by directly misting them but after I misted them I used my t shirt to dry any water on them.
That all depends on if you are ready to care for and feed them now. The nymphs are quite small and highly cannibalistic. If you want to forego the diapause, you can just keep them indoors until the nymphs emerge. Desert temperatures can vary so you can probably go either way at this point. This species does not require a diapause to develop, as they are double brooded throughout much of their range. You probably have not created any travesty by misting them at this point but I definitely would curtail future mistings. I brought mine in from outside in February and misted them once in April to simulate a spring rain. They emerged soon thereafter.
No, I'm not keeping any at the moment. I only had 2 males reach maturity and I did not mate them with the surviving females. The mating rituals and behaviors of this species are well documented so I just needed data from the earlier stages of development is all.
I'm just glad Kris knows about the species as I was unable to find any data online (strange as it was one of the few species I've had it happen to) and just assumed the basic mantid care which tends to be the reason for the lack of a care sheet.
