Pollen feeding

[ellroy]

I recently read a scientific paper called 'Pollen feeding and fitness in praying mantids: the vegetarian side of a tritrophic predator.' It was a study carried out in 2003 on Chinese mantis Tenodera aridfolia sinensis where they observed nymphs actively feeding on pollen after hatching and increased fitness in adults feeding on pollen-laden insects. They also noted higher fertility in females located on flowers.

I'm not suggesting we all start converting our mantids to a pollen diet but it does perhaps imply that dusting food with some kind of supplement may be beneficial, particularly for breeding females. I would imagine that some of the specialist supplements may include some pollen. (I think some of the crested gecko supplements may include pollen???)

Cheers

Alan

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Reference: Pollen feeding and fitness in praying mantids: the vegetarian side of a tritrophic predator (2003). ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY

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[Rick]

That may be true but obviously it's not needed as we now raise all these mantids without any supplements of any kind. Interesting study though.

 

[Rob Byatt]

Ellroy,

I have personally seen a significant increase in fecundity of female mantids that have been fed on pollen, especially with Hymenopus coronatus.

The study highlights that mantids do benefit from a better and more varied diet.

Pollen is a good source of protein that is naturally ingested by mantids; that is why I use it.

There have been numerous reports of non-predatory ingestive behaviour by mantids.

Rob

 

[yen_saw]

Hi Rob, that's interesting finding. Did you use pollen in the market or pollen from flowers in the wild?

 

[Rob Byatt]

Pollen collected by bees from wildflowers in New Zealand.

Nothing should be dismissed until it has been disproven !

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks for the info Rob. I will PM you later.

 

[JT]

how do you dust the feeder insects with pollen? i've got "bee pollen " capsules that i bought from a health food store and the powder doesn't seem to want to stick to crickets or roaches. any suggestions? use it as gut load?or will the mantids just eat it on thier own with out it being on an insect?

 

[yen_saw]

I started to use bee pollen recently, what i did was spray the blue bottle flies / crickets lightly and put them in the container with pollen, and feed them to mantis. Or the method that Rob suggested to me which is mixing the pollen with honey and smear it on to the femora of the forelegs, mantis clean their forearm frequently and that way they will eat the pollen.

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

for about 4 months i've been feeding my mantids just on inverts from my garden. i particularly go for the hoverflies, bees and garden spiders (the ones most likely to have pollen on). i've had no losses since i started this unlike before when i was using fruit flies and crickets. i think my Hymenopus coronatus' benefit from it the most too (one just turned adult today), i guess it's just giving them the right kinds of foods ( as opposed to same insects junk food )

 

[jplelito]

I keep most of my orchid mantids together, but I found a nice way to speed up the females a bit without risking losing too many males to the cold that's a bit related to this.

I catch moths at the lights at night, which orchid mantids love, but before they get fed off I let them drink from a boiled down grape or apple juice 'syrup' soaked into a cotton puff. You have to use the real juice though (just put into a pot, boil till it gets thicker), I don't like to feed them too many preservatives. The moths suck it up, and get nice and bloated, and then the orchids eat that.

If you give those to the girls, they grow faster than normal, probably because of the extra nutrients. Only do this for the boys occaisionally, and so far I've been able to keep the girls one molt ahead of the boys even in the same room.

A few years ago I also did research into cannibalism for Tenodera, and I noticed that the nymphs would lick up juice or pollen dust in the containers. I've seen smaller nymphs on flowers in the wild doing the same thing, especially in the morning dew. It still seems to take water to attract them to a substance though... I dunno about dried pollen grains.

Maybe between the pollen and the sheer density of insects on flowers, this is why female Tenodera like to hang out on goldenrod and asters in the fall, hmm?

 

[AFK]

yeah, goldenrod is one of the busiest insect attracters.

 

[JT]

Hmmm, powdered pollen in their water. that sounds easy enough. i think i'm gonna try that one.