I think I've got Chinese Mantid's (ordered Egg's off the Net) I had a successful hatch, would guestimate about 150 nymphs. They hatched out on 5/31/12. I released alot of them and keep about 25, they've gone through 1 or 2? molts. 1 of them is considerbly larger than the rest. Maybe it is 1 molt ahead of the rest (2 or 3)? I actually had the priviledge of witnessing this one molt, WOW, very cool. My question is, when they molt this early in their lifespan do they release any type of Pheromone or anything. After the 1 molted, several of the other ones acted like complete idiots, running around in circles and acting the fool. It was almost like they were establishing a pecking order, but they all seemed very interested in the 1 that had just molted. What exactly was I watching take place? Has anybody else had any type of similiar outcome? Thanks for any info, I've caught them out of the wild years ago, but never attempted raising them.
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Welcome. Not sure what you are describing but often those young mantids kept together in a group will all starting running around if one moves and touches another. It kind of sets off a chain reaction among them. I doubt there was any reaction to a recently molted mantis.
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angelofdeathzz
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Welcome to the forum.
Chinese are pretty high strung as nymphs, running around is normal for them, but they may see the bigger one as a threat and soon the larger ones will be. They will eat each other after L2-3 or so, separate them or soon there will be just a few fat ones left.
Chinese are pretty high strung as nymphs, running around is normal for them, but they may see the bigger one as a threat and soon the larger ones will be. They will eat each other after L2-3 or so, separate them or soon there will be just a few fat ones left.
welcome! ah haha, dont know what I was thinking! oh my! grannyma tired, I thought this was new post, which it is, but I posted the "welcome" and seen angelofdeath post above and thought, I must of thought this was a welcome post, and I did read it, so then I edit it and put the other, when I left and went to see what was new, I noticed it was a new post, so here I am again! so WELCOME and I mean it this time!
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happy1892
Well-known member
Welcome. I guess it was you who scared them. Like Angelofdeathzz wrote when one or a few more get sacred and start running around and they bump into the others and they all start running around. I would separate them when they are L3, each L3 nymph in its own little container.
