Ootheca Thief

[cloud jaguar]

This morning when I went to work I was sure to take a peek at the only ooth my wife and I put in our front yard - although we have 4 ooths in our back garden, we put one in the front glued onto a thick Rose stem after we trimmed back the rose bushes.

This morning the ooth was there and as I returned from work I noticed it is definitely gone. It did not just fall off the stem, it was quite literally plucked off. I doubt that a human ooth thief snuck into our yard to pluck it from it's hidden place - rather, i suspect it was a crow or similar interloper. We have some birds around here and squirrels also. Not too happy about that since that was definitely a fertile one. Oh well.

~Arkanis

 

[kamakiri]

:angry: Sorry for the loss. I'm not surprised that one of the smarter birds would have learned they are a food source. I did see a study on S. limbata ooths regarding location and bird predation.



Grant

 

[Rick]

They are a food source for some critters.

 

[Katnapper]

Well who would have thought?!! Are all the ones in the back garden still there? You may want to arrage some screening around them!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Very interesting observation, Arkanis! I don't know the explanation, but I do know a little bit about the problem. Certainly, your ooth was eaten by a bird. In some locations, see http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15145407 for example. bird predation can account for over a third of S. limbata ooths. I started checking out cryptic coloration in the ooths of this species when I set two out to winter and found that within a short while, they "weathered" to the same gray color as the twigs that they were on from their original cream color, with a light gray "zipper".

The article suggests that they did well in cottonwood, but in my experience, (I have now found three unzipped ooths in the area) they were not laid at a height of greater than seven foot [that's right, Mija, we aged academics still use the OE genitive], so they would be laid on the trunks of cottonwood trees rather than in the protective canopy. Once again, the gray local ooths would be perfectly camouflaged: http://www.arizonensis.org/sonoran/fieldgu...us_fremont.html Is that cool or what?

I was very interested to receive the generous offers of limbata ooths from you, in western California and Peter, smuggled out of Arizona, which were dark brown with bright yellow zippers, which seem to say "eat me!" especially on a rose bush.

I should be very interested to know the color of other members' ooths from captive and wild limbata, and in the latter case, the state from which they come. Thanks.

 

[Hypoponera]

Hey PhilinYuma,

I've found several S. limbata ooths in my yard. All are a "mid-tan" body with a light tan zipper. All were found on the stems of a tall flowering plant that has a tannish stem that is very close to the color of the ooths. The ooths I have seen females lay in captivity are very light cream color and darken over time. The substrate for these ooths seem to have no effect on final color though. Ooths laid on white cheese cloth darken as much as those laid on a dark brown twig. My location is North central New Mexico.

I found several ooths of S. limbata while living in Tucson. They were all laid on rose stems and Mesquit (sp?) trees. The ooths were VERY dark brown.

 

[yeatzee]

most for me were just normal brown colored, but two of them (the only ones laid by this particular female) are a brown color with definent red tones. t looks red in the right light. I never mated her, so i thought that meant they were infertile, but they just hatched the other day.

 

[robelgado]

Im fighting for the birds.

I think you have a little mantis napper in the neighborhood.

Be pretty funny if a little kid was watching you put them down then he would grab them

and sell them on Ebay!

Oh man, little buggers these days

 

[Dinora]

Im fighting for the birds.I think you have a little mantis napper in the neighborhood.

Be pretty funny if a little kid was watching you put them down then he would grab them

and sell them on Ebay!

Oh man, little buggers these days

Yeah! :angry:

Damned Ebay!!!

That stupid site always sucks me in! Gawd! Like I just spent $80 on Invader Zim action figures... *sigh*

So yeah! I'll go along with blaming Ebay, too!

Stupid Ebay...

 

[cloud jaguar]

E-bay be damned - it was a kid i say! lol . The ooth was 18" off the ground and glued on to a rose with black silicone. If a bird did take it, at least the bandit had a nasty bite of silicone glue for supper, along with some tasty Limbata nymphs.

 

[Dinora]

E-bay be damned - it was a kid i say! lol . The ooth was 18" off the ground and glued on to a rose with black silicone. If a bird did take it, at least the bandit had a nasty bite of silicone glue for supper, along with some tasty Limbata nymphs.

I dunno... Ebay can be pretty damned sneaky! <_<

 

[nasty bugger]

You could do the old string hang thing so the birds freak thinking that the strings are spider webs to catch them, or maybe they think they'll get tangled.

Don't know but the threads may help, or a net, or the pie tins, or the old fake owl thing.

They say the thing with fake owls is you need to move them around once in a while, or the birds and other critters get used to them and figure out they have no danger.

 

[robelgado]

Haha Im glad my suggestion helped

Only thing Ebay is good for is cheap car parts

you catch the little thief yet? Set up a camera....and catch him in the act!