My egyptian mantis has unexpectedly laid an Oothecae....!!!

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scrattyrat

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um,

wasnt expecting this to happen! didnt even know it was a female to be honest. This is my 1st mantis and today i came home to discover it has made an Oothecae (looks looks like a cocoon).

i have no idea what to do here.. The mantis was fairly near adulthood when i bought it (it had one molt and it had its wings) and has had no contact with any other mantids in the few months i have owned it. Is it possible it mated months ago before i got it? Do they produce these even when they havent mated? Ive been searching through the forum for info but havent found much info yet. Will keep looking though.

The Ooth is on a vented area of the enclosure... do i need to cover this up to prevent baby manitds escaping? how soon may this happen?

Any help will be appreciated!

Many thanks!

John

 
Sorry dude, you aren't going to get any mantids from that ooth unless you mated her yourself. They mate when they reach adulthood. The female does lay infertile oothecae without being mated. The only thing to do with that is to throw out the ooth.

 
Do not throw that ootheca out just yet. Some species are able to reproduce by way of parthanogenesis. No males needed! What species do you have?
Click to expand...
Not what he has and I think that is only one species that does that.

 
Does he by chance have Miomantis paykullii? That is an Egyptian mantid that seems to be able to use parthanogenesis when s.exual reproduction isn't possible. This was written about in a paper by Adair. Parthanogenesis may be more wide spread then once though. Iris oratoria and Mantis religiosa also seem to show this ability to some extent. But these species also have the ability to reproduce s.exually, unlike Brunneria borealis.

 
Is there any way to properly identify what species she is? i have attached some photos.

assuming she may have propogated without mating, and the ooth may be viable, should i move it into another tank, keep it in different conditions etc? any info appreciated.

Thanks

CIMG1160.jpg


CIMG1155.jpg


CIMG1159.jpg


 
If nothing else, Keep it for a collection of the Ooths you have hatched or tried too. Some people like Yen Saw posts them on a board, and if you see his post on the quess species, he was sorry he threw away some of his first ooths. Just a thought! :wink:

 
If possible, carefully remove the ooth. Mount it to a stick or the top of a second tank. Mist the ooth daily and keep an eye on it. Hatch out time will be in the 4-6 week time frame. An unfertilized ooth will usually produce only a few nymphs. These will usually hatch out one every couple days. Thus, hatchout could be spread over 2 weeks! And all will develop into only females.

Also, where are you located? Where can I find a shop that carries exotic mantids?

 
Can anyone confirm the species from the photographs above? or is there another topic someone could suggest that i should podt them in for the purpose of identification?

John

 
OK fair enough..

i just wanted to know what to do as there are conflicting responses here...

and if there is even a 'small chance' i needed to know what to do with it in terms of moving it etc because as you can see in the pics, it is on a vent and i could do without nymphs crawling all over my front room on the off chance there is some in there lol

:-D

 

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