Hey guys! Nice to see some Iris chat!
Hi,
At what temperature and humidity which should be incubated ooths Iris oratoria? They are from Turkey (now is here 50°F/10°C). Are they need diapause? I have to Ameles heldreich from Turkey and they are hatching after few weeks. But ooths I.oratoria's didn't hatch after 2 month. Sorry for my english
Lukasz
I've kept the species for about the last 6 years or so and have learned quite a bit about them.
According to some people that I have spoken to, Iris does not need a diapause period. However, in some parts of their range in the US (like right here where I live) they do experience a very cold winter. Here in my area, they hatch once summer has begun and when temperatures (daily highs) are constantly over 90F.
In captivity, I give them a cold period in my unheated garage during the winter months, usually from December to early March. Then I take them out and leave them at room temperature until summer (March to June). Then in June the temperature outside gets rather high and thus, the inside of my house also heats up resulting in the ooths hatching throughout June.
If you want them to hatch sooner, I suggest providing supplemental ambient heat (not direct heat as you do not want to bake the ooths). Temperatures above 90F are ideal. Humidity is not really that important here... I spray their paper towel substrate once every 3 days or so. If they are kept at room temperature (around 75F) they will take weeks to months to hatch.
Also, the nymphs in the ooths will not all hatch out all at once (burst hatching) like most mantid species. In most cases, you will get a lot of nymphs emerge on the first day, then some on the next day, and some on the third day, etc. with smaller and smaller amounts of nymphs emerging as the days go by. I've found that the small L1 nymphs are initially very jittery and scared, but once they realize they are hungry, they become monsters and eat a lot. I use D. melanogaster whenever I have L1 nymphs around. However, since they are thriving "natives" here where I live, I release them in my garden and then catch larger nymphs once July comes by.
It's sometimes amazing... I once (2009) had multiple ooths from
different females kept under the same conditons hatch almost at exactly the same time (within an hour) on the same day!
Hope this helps!
