JoeCapricorn
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2009
- Messages
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Back in the fall I had a fascinating experience to mate two Deroplatys lobata. The male mounted on the female after some coaxing and they were connected for quite a long time - 14 hours, and although the male turned into little brown pellets that Angus laid in the days after, his legacy remains as so far 28 have hatched successfully with a 29th just worming out now and a 30th and likely more poking their tips out of the ooth.
I went out this afternoon and bought 30 containers, and I'm down to 4. There are still some nymphs in the main hatchery container and will probably remain over night since my hand is SORE from poking so many holes in so many lids.
With my experience with hatching two ooths from a wild-caught Chinese female last Spring, these nymphs won't eat for about a day, so tomorrow I'll feed them.
It was getting a bit lonely here since some of the old mantises and grasshoppers have been dying off. I still have one Chinese female (the other may not be dead but certainly is on her way), the two female D. lobata (One being these babies' mommy, and she is still going strong!) and the six R. basalis. As for grasshoppers, down to 3 lubbers, but I also have 2 strange Melanoplus sp. (probably ponderosa), 2 Pennsylvanian Banded Wing nymphs and 10 Georgian Banded Wing nymphs. And a wheel bug and about 38 Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.
Haha, look at them all, with their cute antennae.
Now, for now I am going to keep all of these buggers. Some might not make it the first week - one already died since it was hanging by a thread in a worm-state without moving at all for the hour I spent taking the other 16 newly hatched mantises and putting them each in their own cup. There are a couple that have misshapen legs, but most are in great condition!
Also, I have a lot of fruit flies. My Rhombodera nymphs have outgrown D. melanogaster and have jumped right to pinhead crickets. I got a new jar just this past Thursday because I had that feeling that I might be in for a big increase in mantises.
Up to 31 after typing all of this.
I am very excited as this is the first egg-case that I am directly responsible for. I got the baby D. lobatas last spring, gave them cool names (Angus, Gnarles and Leather-Rebel) and paired Angus and LR. It's my first breeding success! Angus is also still going very strong, I haven't seen any change in the vitality of Angus or Gnarles since when they became adults in August. Angus is pretty chubby and may even lay a second ooth in the next few weeks. Gnarles already laid an ooth but she was never mated (Angus ate Leather-Rebel before Gnarles could get hitched)
I went out this afternoon and bought 30 containers, and I'm down to 4. There are still some nymphs in the main hatchery container and will probably remain over night since my hand is SORE from poking so many holes in so many lids.
With my experience with hatching two ooths from a wild-caught Chinese female last Spring, these nymphs won't eat for about a day, so tomorrow I'll feed them.
It was getting a bit lonely here since some of the old mantises and grasshoppers have been dying off. I still have one Chinese female (the other may not be dead but certainly is on her way), the two female D. lobata (One being these babies' mommy, and she is still going strong!) and the six R. basalis. As for grasshoppers, down to 3 lubbers, but I also have 2 strange Melanoplus sp. (probably ponderosa), 2 Pennsylvanian Banded Wing nymphs and 10 Georgian Banded Wing nymphs. And a wheel bug and about 38 Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.
Haha, look at them all, with their cute antennae.
Now, for now I am going to keep all of these buggers. Some might not make it the first week - one already died since it was hanging by a thread in a worm-state without moving at all for the hour I spent taking the other 16 newly hatched mantises and putting them each in their own cup. There are a couple that have misshapen legs, but most are in great condition!
Also, I have a lot of fruit flies. My Rhombodera nymphs have outgrown D. melanogaster and have jumped right to pinhead crickets. I got a new jar just this past Thursday because I had that feeling that I might be in for a big increase in mantises.
Up to 31 after typing all of this.
I am very excited as this is the first egg-case that I am directly responsible for. I got the baby D. lobatas last spring, gave them cool names (Angus, Gnarles and Leather-Rebel) and paired Angus and LR. It's my first breeding success! Angus is also still going very strong, I haven't seen any change in the vitality of Angus or Gnarles since when they became adults in August. Angus is pretty chubby and may even lay a second ooth in the next few weeks. Gnarles already laid an ooth but she was never mated (Angus ate Leather-Rebel before Gnarles could get hitched)
