Molting Question

[Mantid-Tim]

   I have an African Mantis (S. lineola) and she went from an L2 to adult (@ L9, I'm pretty sure) in 8 weeks, 5 days. It seemed kind of fast, but even her sub-adult to adult molt only took 2 weeks. The L5 or L6 to L6 or L7 molt happened in only 1 week! (That totals to an average of about 9 days per molt!)

   The temp is about 80°F (27°C) since July,  before that I had no AC and it was about 85°F in my apartment. I feed her every other day or sometimes a little a day rather than the 'until full and then wait 2 days' method. The reason I do it like that is because she is so insatiable I have literally never seen her full or refuse food, even before molts; not once! I think she is the type that would overeat to her own detriment or ruptured abdomen for sure. (As a nymph she ate 18 fruit flies and as a subadult ate 12 blue bottle maggots before I stopped; she was still going strong and was fed recently as well)

   Any comments would be appreciated!

 

[MantisGirl13]

Wow! You definitely spend up her molts by feeding her so often.

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Mantid-Tim]

So just to clarify I don't feed anywhere near that much other than those two times as an experiment. I usually feed like 2 flies one day 1 fly the next day. I go by the shape of abdomen to guage how much I am feeding. Do you think that is feeding too much to speed up the molts that dramatically? For example if someone fed 7 flies a week 4 and then 3, or if they fed 1 per day, so still the same amount per week, would it make a difference? In other words, does frequency of feeding matter in and of itself, aside from how much you are feeding?

Also, if I switch to feeding every two days, about how many blue bottles should I give? Like 4 for an adult?

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Feed only when her abdomen is flat. That will keep her growth rate normale.

 

[Mantid-Tim]

Okay, Ill try that. I do want her to live as long as possible as an adult (obviously). It seems like the temperature makes a big difference too. My other mantises started growing noticeably slower after I had AC's installed--going from 85° to 76°.