Mantids going dormant

[Sparky]

O.K. this is so weird, one day I was cleaning one of the P. ocellata containers and I left one of the nymphs on the window one night and I totally forgot all about it. The next day when I woke up for school, my room was freezing cold and I just remembered that I left it on the window. I opened the curtains and there it was. It's legs were curled up,it was upside down and it was completely motionless. I thought I'd just get rid of it after I came home from school so I put the body in a container and left it on the windowsill.

In the afternoon the temperatures got up to its 75-80F. Right after school I went to my room to throw the mantid away, but I didn't see it in the container so I opened the lid and it was right there hanging on the lid and doing that swaying thing Pseudocreobotra mantids do. I thought I'd like to share this experience with everyone to give you guys another reason why not to just throw your mantids away.

 

[OGIGA]

Wow, thanks for sharing. Glad you saved the mantis.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Cool and I mean literary!

 

[joossa]

Torpor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpor

http://insects.about.com/od/adaptations/p/wintersurvival.htm

 

[chrisboy101]

thats odd , bet u were really relieved :lol:

 

[Sparky]

Torpor:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpor

http://insects.about.com/od/adaptations/p/wintersurvival.htm

I knew that, but I didn't know it applied for mantids.

thats odd , bet u were really relieved :lol:

I was really surprised.

 

[Christian]

This is not torpor, just undercooling.

Torpor is a physiological mechanism that is induced by outside climatic conditions and started and ended by the animal itself. What you had was just abrupt undercooling. As insects are poikilotherms, the movements and physiological reactions are slowed down to almost zero. If it doesn't last for long, most insects survive it. That's why we can ship insects during cool periods without apparent ill effects.

 

[Durkin]

Wouldn't this be relatively the same effect as putting feeder insects in the freezer temporarily to calm them down? It just unintentionally happend to the predator rather than the prey.

 

[Christian]

Yes.

 

[joossa]

This is not torpor, just undercooling.Torpor is a physiological mechanism that is induced by outside climatic conditions and started and ended by the animal itself. What you had was just abrupt undercooling. As insects are poikilotherms, the movements and physiological reactions are slowed down to almost zero. If it doesn't last for long, most insects survive it. That's why we can ship insects during cool periods without apparent ill effects.

Thanks for the correction. ...makes sense!