Mantid´s first molt and question about sizes

[Eldur]

One of my mantis has molted for the first time he/she is now I think almost 1cm longer than before! The skin is just hanging there on the mesh on the side of the enclosure and I will take it away if soon (go and get it if it´s not fallen to the bottom tonight).

I wanted to ask you, I have 4 nymphs from the same hatch (well 3, my friend got one of them) and they are diffirent sizes. The one who just molted is the biggest and always was, is now much bigger. He/she is nr.4 and nr.4 has eaten the least amount of food, only one housefly in many days, he came to me on wendnesday and didn´t eat until saturday when he took a housefly and then nothing and today thuesday The others have eaten more but are smaller.

The breeder was talking about that he thought that the males were bigger now in L3/L4 because the females would molt more often. Is that right?

Then the biggest one would be male and the small once females?

Is it common that nymhps from the same hatch grow on a diffirent rate?

 

[PhilinYuma]

It is normal for a mantis that is about to molt to not want to eat, and this seems to be the case here. It should start eating normally again tomorrow or the next day at latest.

If nymphs of the same age are kept together, the larger one will tend to be female. Also, the ratio of females to males will increase as the nymphs get older (I wonder why that is? ).

Males do have fewer instars but often become adult before their sisters do, and die much sooner. This is very irritating if you plan to breed siblings from one ooth, but in nature, it ensures that a male is more likely to breed with females from an ooth that hatched secveral weeks before his rather than with his sisters.

Yes, they often grow at different rates and molt at different times.

 

[d17oug18]

had reared 20 nymphs, all 20 molted at least 3 days apart from each other, not one molted at the same time, not even close. it just happens in the wild, big ones survive, little ones get eatin... NOT in the case of caging them, but you get the point.

 

[Rick]

You cannot go off of size to tell gender at this stage. In many species they are all about the same size as nymphs. It is common for them to grow at different rates.