My Female Orchid Mantis' final molt

[JennMantis]

Some of you might have seen my previous posts about my adult female orchid not eating and she ultimately passed. My friend who raised her sister gave her orchid to me because she was unable to spend the time to take care of her.  When I received her orchid a month and a half ago, she was THREE molts behind my original orchid!  She finally molted to adult two days ago.  Hard to believe that they came from the same ooth!  Here are some pics of her molt that she was so kind to let me observe.

Scary moment when she flipped around!

Thanks for looking ?

I still have the male orchid (also from the same ooth)  he molted to adult on 4/23!  I hope he can hold out a few more weeks, so I can attempt mating them.   

 

[JennMantis]

 

[CosbyArt]

@JennMantis Yes it happens that some sibling nymphs are slower at molting (or some are faster) - even with the same care, same keeper, or even same gender. I had it happen with some Chinese nymphs (Tenodera sinensis) in the last ooth I hatched, and I seen Rick had it happen too. See his photo of the two nymphs from the same ooth together, and his post here about it. PhotoBucket don't show photos in the posts now, but photos work at their website - refresh their page a few times if you don't see the mantids.

It is a bit strange to be sure, and leads to some keepers thinking there are more/less molts than there really are.

Sorry to hear your girl was ill and passed. That is very nice of your friend to give you her female too. Great to see she made it to adulthood, best of luck breeding her.

 

[Ocelotbren]

Great pictures of the moment, glad you got to witness it and all went well!

 

[MantisRCool]

Probly she was in a less temperature glad she made it!!