Iris oratoria development variations

[MantidLord]

I've been raising 20 I. oratoria nymphs for some time now. I collected them all as L1s in the same location (probably collected the whole ooth) within days of each other. After putting them in their separate jars, I began feeding them aphids and later fruit flies. All of their conditions were the same, and they were being fed the same time period. Even molting the same time frame (within days of each other).

Suddenly, their molting intervals starting spacing apart. Now I find myself with a subadult female as the largest of the group. And a mantis the size of an L4. I've lost count on their molts so surely it can't be an L4, but it's extremely smaller than what it should be. It can't even take on crickets the way the subadult (obviously) can. And in between those two, there is a whole array of mantids at different sizes and stages of development is. So I think you can see my question here.

Is this sudden difference in development normal? I've read that it can be due to difference in nutrition, but they were all fed on the same thing the same time until they started molting/not molting. I'm not concerned about breeding them because I know that they can live until others reach adulthood. I'm just curious as to how a large group of mantids start off at the same stage, yet end up vastly different.

 

[ismart]

Yes, this is normal for this species. I still have iris nymphs hatching from ooths that were laid last October. They began to hatch in march, and continue to this day. Infact i saw a hand full of hatchlings yesterday. I got to take em out.

 

[mantisboybrandon]

I find this to be normal with mine as well. I have been producing ooths and had many successful breeding with them and i tape the sticks with all the ooths on them to my trees outside so they can hatch into my garden. Every now and then i would go outside and see that some of the eggs hatched a little earlier than some others and when I've seen this in captivity, those early hatchers naturally got larger quicker. But this is a very interesting topic.

 

[Ntsees]

I also see the difference in size from those hatching from the same ooth. But do you know what was even more interesting? This year, I had nymphs (about 15) hatch out from parthenogenosis and the same thing happened to them too. Genetically, they are identical but there were still the small vs large. Now, I only have one of those "clones" because being the largest, it ate all of it's other siblings. I'm beginning to think that it's based on nutrition as well (and throwing in stress factors).

 

[MantidLord]

Thanks for the replies.

Ismart and brandon: I'm referring to nymphs that hatch at the same time developing differently, not nymphs hatching out weeks or months apart. Unfortunately though, none of my last season ooths hatched, so all of these are wild caught.

Ntsees: I guess the individual crickets, aphids, and fruit flies varied in nutrition leading to the gaps in size. Lucky you to experience parthenogenesis with this species, as even my mated females ooths hardly hatch. I'm going to start leaving them inside instead of outside. Although this will be my last time breeding them anyway <_<

 

[Rick]

I've seen it in several species.

The pic below is two mantids from the same ooth kept under identical condtions:

 

[MantidLord]

That's so weird. I wonder if it's not solely dependent on nutrition but maybe some kind of strategy?

 

[carlcattau]

Survival strategy would make sense to me. If everyone hatch's or grows at the same rate a situation could render that whole generation useless. Mother nature has some great tricks up her sleeve to make sure her creatures survive.

Carl

 

[Ntsees]

Survival strategy would make sense to me. If everyone hatch's or grows at the same rate a situation could render that whole generation useless. Mother nature has some great tricks up her sleeve to make sure her creatures survive.

Carl

+1, I was thinking about that too.

 

[mantisboybrandon]

Wow those are some cool thoughts. Hmm but maybe the smaller ones just end up being foid for the larger ones or idk?