Platysil the female Deroplatys lobata reaches adulthood

[MantidBro]

My female Deroplatys lobata, Platysil, finally reached adulthood! I let her in the new wild cage I made for a few days as she hardened up. The day after she molted, I went to take her out of the cage, and when my hand touched her, she struck me and did the defense pose! Aw man she looks awesome! She's never really reacted like that before, only once when I scared her with a hopper. And she definitely never struck me. I think having just molted, plus having been put in the wild cage for the first time, made her more reactive and defensive.

Here she is! The beaute!

SO COOL.

Gonna try breeding her with Derotor in a few weeks! Whoo!

 

[dmina]

Wow .. What a beauty! Awesome habitat ... Thanks for sharing

 

[Aryia]

Nice to see that she's doing good ^^ Good luck with breeding : )

 

[Forcep]

Congrats! She looks awesome.

 

[Mantis Man13]

At what instar did she reach adulthood? My friend who is mantis sitting my mantis said my mantis molted and gave me pics but I can't tell if she has wings. Mine is L8 now btw.

 

[MantidBro]

Wow .. What a beauty! Awesome habitat ... Thanks for sharing

She is for sure! im so happy that she molted correctly and all is well. I call that cage, the wild cage, all my mantids, one at a time, get a chance to go in, for fun. They each get to spend the entire day and night in there before its the next ones turn lol

 

[MantidBro]

Nice to see that she's doing good ^^ Good luck with breeding : )

Shes beautiful! thank you! got any tips on breeding them?

 

[MantidBro]

Congrats! She looks awesome.

Thanks! im so glad man! lol

 

[MantidBro]

At what instar did she reach adulthood? My friend who is mantis sitting my mantis said my mantis molted and gave me pics but I can't tell if she has wings. Mine is L8 now btw.

One more molt and she will be an adult. I collected each exuvia after her molts. I got her at L2, so I have 7, but she molted once while with the breeder, so 8 molts. Yours is at L8, so M7. They become adults at M8.

 

[Mantis Man13]

Can you go on chat so we can talk about the mantis some more?

 

[MantidBro]

Can you go on chat so we can talk about the mantis some more?

Sure thing

 

[Aryia]

Shes beautiful! thank you! got any tips on breeding them?

Back when I bred mine I used the most traditional method. Place the male a couple inches behind the female, as close as he'll let you without freaking out in the next step. Then I poke the female gently just to make her move slightly. I noticed that the males are actually very visually oriented (My theory is that males use pheromones to locate the females over long distance, but then visually find them!), anyway, he should point both his antennae towards her and wiggle them in excitement. His entire stance will noticeable change when he realizes there is a breedable female in front of him. After that the male will usually stalk and then jump on her, and connect within an hour or so. Connection lasts a good 10+ hours. I just leave both male and female free in a room, I've never had a male cannibalized when they can fly away and they usually eventually end up flying on my back when I walk in (I have no idea why but that's how I re-collect my males about half the time). The females are pretty docile in my experience too, the only time I've ever had a D. lobata male grabbed was when he was acting pretty senile (It's possible the female realized he was no good for mating?).

I now use a different method where I skip the whole stalking process which can take hours, but I haven't tried it with D. lobata yet. My females are still subadult only (apart from the fertile adult female who is still laying ).

First pairing was around 5-6 weeks if I remember correctly, and she took her sweet time for her first ootheca so don't freak out when she doesn't lay for a long while. Mine literally look ready to blow up before she laid. Average hatch size was always 150+ for me and oothecas took forever to hatch (6-8 weeks?). Generally everything about this species seems to take absolutely forever. Their first molt took about 3-4 weeks as well!

 

[MantidBro]

Back when I bred mine I used the most traditional method. Place the male a couple inches behind the female, as close as he'll let you without freaking out in the next step. Then I poke the female gently just to make her move slightly. I noticed that the males are actually very visually oriented (My theory is that males use pheromones to locate the females over long distance, but then visually find them!), anyway, he should point both his antennae towards her and wiggle them in excitement. His entire stance will noticeable change when he realizes there is a breedable female in front of him. After that the male will usually stalk and then jump on her, and connect within an hour or so. Connection lasts a good 10+ hours. I just leave both male and female free in a room, I've never had a male cannibalized when they can fly away and they usually eventually end up flying on my back when I walk in (I have no idea why but that's how I re-collect my males about half the time). The females are pretty docile in my experience too, the only time I've ever had a D. lobata male grabbed was when he was acting pretty senile (It's possible the female realized he was no good for mating?).

I now use a different method where I skip the whole stalking process which can take hours, but I haven't tried it with D. lobata yet. My females are still subadult only (apart from the fertile adult female who is still laying ).

First pairing was around 5-6 weeks if I remember correctly, and she took her sweet time for her first ootheca so don't freak out when she doesn't lay for a long while. Mine literally look ready to blow up before she laid. Average hatch size was always 150+ for me and oothecas took forever to hatch (6-8 weeks?). Generally everything about this species seems to take absolutely forever. Their first molt took about 3-4 weeks as well!

Wow i never replied to this, how rude of me, lol. I did read it but apparently forgot to reply. Woops! But thanks for the info! Yeah Platysil and Derotor mated twice, the first time for 19 hours, then 20 hours the second time. He made it out alive both times. The second time i literally just picked him up and placed him on her back and he grabbed on LOL! yes ive also realized the males are visually oriented. With food, and with mating. I think youre right that they find the female by the pheramones she emits then use sight from there! I had mine on my lap the first time he grabbed on, then on my shelf the second time. He wont release the female once hes connected so i was able to then move them to the wild cage, which is a huge cage my bearded dragon lived in before he died. Both times they were still mating when i woke up but id find him later in the day hiding in the cage away from her. Yeah she took forever to lay the first ooth and it took forever to hatch, 37 days to be exact, lol. Im waiting for her next ooth.

 

[LAME]

Im waiting for her next ooth.

Hey what a coincidence, so am I ! =)

 

[MantidBro]

Hey what a coincidence, so am I ! =)

Haha, ive got ya in mind, i literally think of it as your ooth already!