Hello all,
I’m excited to share that my first Orchid baby, Phlox (male), has successfully molted into an adult!
When looking for signs an orchid is molting, I haven’t seen much advice apart from “they stop eating”. I wanted to share two things I noticed that I haven’t really seen anyone mention. I’m hoping this helps take some of the guessing and stress away from the molting waiting game! This may not be the same for every orchid mantis.
1. Colour
Eyes gradually became a darker shade of orange/pink even during daytime, legs, thorax, and head became more pink, necklace turned darker brown, markings on abdomen turned a more vibrant orange.
2. Wing Buds
Wing buds became swollen to the point where they were sticking out and almost looked “sharp” a day before the molt, turned yellow especially near the tips of the buds. I thought they were super swollen a week before his molt, here are some pics of him about 5 days before his molt:
And this was taken 2 days before his molt:
Here he is all grown up!
I’m excited to share that my first Orchid baby, Phlox (male), has successfully molted into an adult!
When looking for signs an orchid is molting, I haven’t seen much advice apart from “they stop eating”. I wanted to share two things I noticed that I haven’t really seen anyone mention. I’m hoping this helps take some of the guessing and stress away from the molting waiting game! This may not be the same for every orchid mantis.
1. Colour
Eyes gradually became a darker shade of orange/pink even during daytime, legs, thorax, and head became more pink, necklace turned darker brown, markings on abdomen turned a more vibrant orange.
2. Wing Buds
Wing buds became swollen to the point where they were sticking out and almost looked “sharp” a day before the molt, turned yellow especially near the tips of the buds. I thought they were super swollen a week before his molt, here are some pics of him about 5 days before his molt:
And this was taken 2 days before his molt:
Here he is all grown up!
