Joe's Mantis Updates

[JoeCapricorn]

Jasper molted perfectly today to L6 on February 17. Also, Jasper is undeniably a female. I can clearly see only 6 segments. The only other possible female of the group is Kit. Also, it is possible that I am ahead 1 on the instars of the second group, since I assumed they arrived as L3. They might have been L2 upon arrival. For now I'll keep assuming they arrived as L3, but if they end up all having one more instar than the first group, this would be the case.

Jasper will get a larger container today, Angel's old Ziploc container. I'm also going to go out questing for large enough containers to hold adults. I don't want Angel in his cramped up deli container for too long, even if it is a 32 oz. He might be able to stay there until he molts to L9, though. But once I get perfect sized containers for adults, I can move Kit, Fortune and Meek to them, and give the old Ziploc containers of Angel, Kit, Fortune and Meek to Jasper, Dio, Nereid and Baphomet.

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Update: I found the perfect container for my mantises! Sterilite 2.5 quart or 2.4 liter containers. The only thing is, the lid is a bit hard to punch through. I used a screw driver and basically went all psychotic serial killer on the thing. Same basic set up as the smaller containers - a few holes on the top for ventilation, paper towel covering the entire lid for upside-down-ness, paper towel on bottom to catch poo and cricket guts. I also added some fake plants I got way back in November, or October in preparation for my new arrivals. I even got new Kritter Keepers, but I've since used them for other uses such as holding crickets and lizards that I caught in Alabama. One of them also held Apple, the last Differential grasshopper of the year that lived until after the first snow storm in December.

So now Fortune, Kit, Meek and Angel are in the containers they will live out the rest of their lives in. Baphomet, Nereid, Dio and Jasper got the old Ziploc containers the other four were in. The 32 oz deli container Angel was in for his molt to L8 is now where I house crickets, since it is nice and tall and less likely for them to escape, I can just reach my forceps in, pick up a piece of cardboard containing some crickets and pull it out and immediately place them in a vial. The vials are each portioned according to the mantis' needs, usually just one cricket at a time, and I just dump the vial into their cage and let them have at it!

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Still keeping an eye on Nereid, who is still eating, but lately my mantises would eat and still surprise me with a molt later on. Also, it is very likely that my L numbers for Jasper, Nereid, Baphomet and Dio are one ahead... which means Jasper is L5, Nereid, Dio and Baphomet are L4 and they all arrived at L2.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Dio and Nereid both molted today perfectly. Nereid's antennae is a bit straighter and both are doing very well ^_^ - I am "downgrading" the "official" status of the second bunch minus one, so Nereid, Dio and Jasper are L5 and Baphomet is L4.

Next to molt is anticipated to be Fortune, to L8. After that Meek and Kit to L8. After that Angel(to L9) and Baphomet(to L5). Maybe because of my relative new-ness to the hobby, but I'm going to use L numbers straight through to Imago even though they are technically terms for "larva stages". I still don't know for sure when adult-hood is, but I'm guessing L10.

I am making a new post because I kinda have a question... is it smart to take decorations out of a cage of a mantis about to molt to ensure they molt on the top with plenty of height to the bottom? I do have some fake plants in the cages of Angel, Fortune, Meek and Kit. I say this is kinda a question, just because I might end up doing so anyway. There are a few days to go before Fortune molts, but it will most likely be next week - today is 16 days after his molt to L7. I am very intrigued about how big he will be at L8, since when everyone caught up to Angel at L7 they made Angel look noticably smaller! Angel had a very short time period between L6 and L7 (or was it L5 to L6, I forget), but one of those was 13 days long and another 16 days. I think this shorter time period may translate into a generally smaller size later on and while Angel will constantly surpass the sizes of the rest while they are still nymphs, this won't be the case when everyone catches up to adulthood... which is so excitingly near! I predict by April Angel will be an adult and by mid-April the rest will be adults. Sometime around mid-April, Dio, Jasper, Baphomet and Nereid will be about where the first bunch are right now. I think they will be adults definitely by June but possibly by mid-May - after all they are about 2 months growth behind and came from a completely different egg case than the first bunch. I am also going to go out on a limb to say that the largest (mass wise) of all 8 of them (when all are adults) may very well be Jasper, who is definitely a female. Kit is a possible female but has some distortions in her abdomen... but I do not see any signs of a 7th or 8th segment on her underside. At all.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Fortune has molted to L8! He is still in the process, but all of his legs are done and he is just hanging out until he is ready to start climbing up and letting his exoskeleton harden.

My goodness, he is gorgeous! He easily surpasses Angel in length, I think he might be about 3 inches long. I am also wondering if he is indeed Sub-Adult, his wings are also larger than Angel's wings. However, at most he has two molts to go. I took Meek and Kit out to spray their container for extra insurance moisture. Meek's wing buds are definitely bulged out and he will likely molt within the next 12 hours. Kit is likely to molt within the next 36 hours. Angel is likely to molt within the next 128 hours. Baphomet is likely to molt to L5 somewhere along the line as well. After that, it is Jasper to L6.

Still, Fortune's molt is the first one I got to see from the very start. I saw him as he started ecdysis, his skin seperated from his body and then the actual split down the middle of his back and the eventual molt itself. What a wondrous and fascinating process! So beautiful!

Meek is in the process of molting as I type. Again, I got to see him molt from the start and everything is going smoothly so far. *knocks on wood*

Fortune is active and I have him sitting on my desk with me. I will likely try to feed him but if he doesn't want to eat he does not have to. I don't intend on feeding him anything substantial either, likely a headless cricket (so that the cricket doesn't have a chance to harm Fortune). Meek will have to wait until tomorrow to be fed, there won't be any time tonight.

For Fortune it is 22 days after last molt and for Meek it is about 21 days after last molt. Kit is next, definitely. Also it appears that at 8th instar both Meek and Fortune have larger wing buds than Angel, who is also at 8th instar. This deepens the mystery of Angel (who had a molt that was 13 days apart, mind you, and has been growing faster than the rest since he beat the other three to L5 by almost a week and to L8 by about 16 days!) - I wonder now what Angel will look like at L9. Perhaps sub-adult, but now I wonder if L8 is sub-adult, and that maybe Angel might end up having "short wings"... I guess we'll see.

Meek's molt went perfectly and he is now sitting on my hand, all curious and active and adorable ^_^

Baphomet molted early this morning (while I slept) to L5. Perfect molt. Jasper and Kit are the next to molt - both of them are female.

Jasper molted late 3/5 to L6. Perfect molt. She must have finished not too long before I got home from seeing Otep. I am keeping a close eye on Kit (soon to L8) and Angel (soon to L9), they are next to molt. After that, Nereid and Dio to L6, then way into the future the cycle will likely start again with Baphomet to L6, Fortune and Meek to L9 sometime close together. This is so exciting!

Kit successfully molted to L8 late 3/6. There is now a much more dramatic difference between her appearance and that of Fortune and Meek. Angel is sort of enigmatic but probably a "dwarf" male or something. Not quite sure what size Angel will be, but I am sure that Kit might actually have an extra molt. Her wing buds are much smaller than that of Fortune, Meek and Angel (although Angel's wing buds are smaller than Fortune and Meek's) and she definitely has six segments. The only other female is Jasper that I know of, but I have not checked Baphomet, Nereid and Dio in detail. Also, Kit appeared to be a male until L7, when it became more obvious that she was a she.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Angel is in the beginning stages of molting! This would mean he will become 9th instar. There are now several mysteries yet to be solved about the 9th Instar. Will Fortune and Meek have a tenth instar? Or is their 9th instar adulthood? What if Angel is an adult? What will he look like? Updates will be posted as this molting unfolds...

Angel is mysterious because he is 8th instar, yet his wingbuds are small like Kit's. He has also had short time periods between molts. However, when Fortune and Meek molted to 8th instar, their wingbuds are significantly larger, which may mean that 9th instar for them is adulthood. Kit has molted to 8th instar and has small wingbuds in comparison to those of Fortune and Meek. Kit is a female and this difference is now more dramatic.

So three possibilities:

Angel becomes an adult with short wings

Angel is a female-male hermaphrodite?

Angel becomes a sub-adult and just has short wing buds, and Fortune and Meek's 9th instars are similar but larger and with larger wingbuds. ;

I don't know... but this molting is sooo exciting!

 

[Katnapper]

I don't know... but this molting is sooo exciting!

It never gets old to me, Joe!

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Sometime on 3/12 I discovered Nereid had molted to L6 successfully! His (or her) antennae are no longer curled, but his right antennae is shorter than his left. By the time he is adult, this difference will be negligible or null as it is in Fortune (who completely lost an antennae when molting from L1 to L2)

I got 30 adult crickets and have started a cricket breeding colony. None of the adult females will be fed off to the mantises, even the adult males are too big, but what I hope is to have several generations of crickets and a supply of much smaller crickets at hand. Plus, it's just fun watching the crickets scurry around and hearing them sing. Also, one of the females molted to adult today, which I could tell since she was kinda albino like.

And I cleaned my room. I worked from 4 in the afternoon until 6 minutes ago (12:50 AM) - my mom went on a bus-trip to a hockey game in Johnstown, I wanted her to come home to something awesome.

Dio molted perfectly to L6 very early on March 16. I had been up late last night, went to bed around 4:00 AM, when I saw Dio hanging out soon after molting. Also, it is possible that Dio is a female.

Baphomet molted perfectly to L6 on March 20, a day before spring :3

 

[JoeCapricorn]

Over the next few weeks, from now until April 8, I predict that all 8 of my mantises will molt sooner or later. The second bunch to L7, Kit to L9, and Meek, Fortune and Angel possibly to adulthood (L9/L10)

Jasper molted perfectly to L7 today, March 25. The very next molt may be Fortune to adult. I'm keeping an eye on him, but last night he did eat and was eager to do so. I subjected him to a hunting response test - When he faces the computer screen, I bring up MS Paint, I start with a large brush size, move it around, zoom in (enlarges the dot) and move it around. I had zoomed all the way in and still no hunting response. Also, Fortune's wingbuds are spreading out a bit. I predict his molt within the next 24 hours.

Kit immediately responded to the hunting test. She may molt within the next 96 hours. Her wingbuds are slightly bulging and the boundaries between her abdominal segments are raised a bit.

Meek's wingbuds are bulged dramatically, but he responded immediately to the hunting test. Based on last molt, he may molt within the next 72 hours, not too long after Fortune.

Last time, Angel molted to L9 a few days after Kit molted to L8. This time around, he might actually molt to L10 while the others molt to L9... his wingbuds aren't too swollen but are spread out a bit. He did not respond to the hunting test. He responded later when I tried again after he calmed down a bit, but it was still delayed.

All four have a light-green band on the side of their abdomens, this is something I noticed appearing when they are close to molting. If Angel were to molt today, it would be 16 days past his molt to L9. Fortune and Meek are 21 days after their molt to L8 and Kit is 19 days after her molt to L8.

I made a chart of days each of my mantises molted. Strangely enough, I have a couple quick-period molts among the younger fellas. Baphomet had a molt 15 days post L5 and Nereid had one 13 days post L5. Angel had a molt 13 days post L7 when he molted to L8. Nereid and Dio are the next to molt in that group, followed by Baphomet, all to L7. I don't expect any more molts aside from Nereid until April, but again, I might be surprised. I have been before.... several times

 

[JoeCapricorn]

R.I.P. Fortune... October ? 2009 - April 3 2010.

His molt was not successful, I am weighing my options, I will probably do the freezer, but if there are quicker, humane alternatives, I'd rather not have my mom find him if I leave him in there or something.

Kit also fell when she molted, but she fell after she was done, and only her antennae were affected. She is fine, otherwise. In fact, she is beautiful, I think even her antennae straightened out. I am keeping a close eye on Meek for the next 12 hours, will stay up as long as possible. If I saw Fortune fall, I would have been able to save him.

First mismolt is hard (my mom is taking it hard too :/), but I do realize this occurs often.

I decided to give him a shot at life. His head and mouth parts are intact. Everything else, well, not so much. He is shaped like the letter C. I made a cape of sorts with paper towel, put a hole in it for his head and gently wrapped him in it. I can change this every so often and moisten it. Tomorrow, I will try to feed him. Food will be held by the paper towel itself, and he'll have to use his mouthparts to maneuver it into his jaws. This is day one of this experiment, to see how long a disfigured mismolt mantis can survive.

Edit: R.I.P. Fortune... October ? 2009 - April 3 2010. He got some mold growth on his body, as well as hardened blood - his injuries were worse than I thought. I did what I had to do.

For Meek I am taking the suggestions of bark. Dio molted today, perfect molt. He's nice and big too, and likely has two molts to go (so, he'll be like Fortune and Meek, with 9th instar being adult)

 

[JoeCapricorn]

And I woke up upon this bright, lovely easter morning to behold my eyes upon a sight I hoped to see - Meek molting to adult! My worries and fears welled up as I watched with anticipation and anxiety, but he kept going strong! Even the foot that I was worried of was uncoupled from the old and looks fresh as new! And how he is hanging inverted, awaiting the spreading of his wings!

And now I am going to eat A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT OF EASTER CANDY! ^________^

 

[JoeCapricorn]

7 new mantises arrived today! Thank you Peter!

4 Psuedocreobotra wahlbergii, 2 Budwings and an adult female Ghost mantis.

First off, photographs never accurately depict how small and precious these mantises are. The Ghost mantis is not even two inches long, she is absolutely adorable! ^_^

The P. walhbergii are so tiny, and the Budwings are just about twice their length.

Names are still being worked out, but they are all in their new homes. The six babies went directly to the ziploc-sized cups (which, compared to the small deli cups they came in, is a castle!), except for two of them, one is in the large cup 3 of the P. wahlbergiis are in, and one is in the large cup the Ghost mantis came in. The Ghost is in a larger container.

No health problems, all are comfortable, in fact all seem quite chubby! They look like they were well fed moments before shipping out.

As for the first 7, other than Meek and Angel, all of them are sub-adult. Their next molt will be to adult-hood.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

So I had an ooth hatch in my room a few weeks ago, lots of T. sinensis, I separated them into their own containers today and counted 15, gave them all greek letter designations. This is to keep track of molts and times between molting. Most will be set free, I may keep 3 to 6 as pets and I plan on naming them after characters in Charlotte's Web.

Capri (P. wahlbergii) was given a new home. Isis and Osiris (Budwing) are doing well. Baphomet and Nereid both showed signs of some sickness, but soon got better. I thought Baphomet would be a goner, but one day he just started eating again - at one point his abdomen was almost as flat as paper.

Kit is close to molting to adult. Dio may be next, followed by Baphomet, Nereid and Jasper.

And Chloë is the sweetest mantis in the world. I love ghost mantises now, I may get more of them in the future. For now, I have 26 mantis mouths to feed!

 

[JoeCapricorn]

DIO IS AN ADULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I had to! I am just so elated! This was as flawless a molt as it could possibly be.

 

[JoeCapricorn]

KIT IS AN ADULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Perfect molt! She is sitting on my speaker, all proud and cute!

Hierodula are, in the end, definitely bigger in mass and width than Chinese mantises. Kit's face is bigger, her eyes are wider, her abdomen is larger, her thorax is wider, her wings are... shorter and her body length is also shorter, but she is one big lovable bug! ^_^

 

[JoeCapricorn]

CASPER IS AN ADULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those who don't know, that's the male Ghost mantis I got last week as a sub-adult. He is to be mated with Chloë in about two weeks.

Baphomet, Jasper and Nereid all molted to adult since last update. Jasper mismolted and passed away a few days later. Baphomet mismolted but only lost one leg and his wings are messed up but he can catch and climb.

Angel and Meek are showing signs of age. Dio is old enough to mate and I will attempt to mate him and Kit. On the other hand, the recent death of Ronnie James Dio kinda makes me want to try Meek or wait until Baphomet or Nereid are good enough.

There has been several molts in the past few days, so I will try to name them all.

Out of the 7 T. sinensis I have, five of them are third instar. Gamma and Phi are second instar. Phi is from the second hatching the rest are from the first. Names are temporary greek designates.

One of the Rhombodera mismolted and lost a leg, but is able to use two of his hind legs. His name is L, if he makes it to adult he'll be Lucky. He has a good shot at it, he can climb paper towel easily and I intend on giving him netting after transferring Casper to a better container.

The other two Rhombodera also molted. Tao molted today and Te molted a few days ago.

All three of the D. lobata molted since arrival. Their names are Leatherhead, Gnarles and Angus. Angus molted today and she is a definite female.

Budwings Isis and Osiris molted last week. Gender of both are still unknown, but both are doing great!

P. wahlbergii Capri molted to 5th instar. Whatever afflicted his three siblings is not affecting him at all. The three new ones are doing great and show no signs of illness, two of them remain unnamed. The third molted yesterday and has been named Dulcinea. I intend on giving floral names to the other two as well but will wait until they molt to 4th instar.

So yeah, that covers all 7 species of mantises. I also got Eastern Lubbers and four of them molted. One resulted in deformity, but it is still able to eat. One died, reducing the number to 15, but I got a lot in order for some to reach adult hood, so this is not unexpected.