Raining orchid mantis

[yen_saw]

Caught a rare glimpse of orchid mantis hatching before going to work this morning. Looks like another good hatching rate, i will find out the final number later tonight. Must be a nightmare for all fruit flies to see this :twisted:

 

[Nick Barta]

Yen,

Looks like little aliens bursting out at you!

Nick

 

[Jwonni]

thanks for that pic yen looks really weird but so cool

 

[Rick]

Awesome yen. What conditions do you keep the ooths under?

 

[robo mantis]

Man yen I hope to see my B. mendica ooth do that.

 

[Ian]

Wow Yen, what a fantastic photo! Great shot, lets hope to see that on this end

Nice work man.

 

[OGIGA]

They look a lot like meal worms up at the top. I'm sure they'll look better as they get older. Nice picture though!

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks guys, it was an opportunity that doesn't come across often.

When i got home, found out that 3 orchid oothecae hatched today!! So it is raining orchid mantis to me.

Here is the final look on the one that posted earlier. About 130 nymphs hatched, another record for me!! yahoo!

Here is the pic of another one that hatched out only 35 nymphs (next to the 130 nymphs)

and another ooth hatched out about 90-100 nymphs.

I have settled them in a net cage, all close to 300 orchid nymphs together.

What conditions do you keep the ooths under?

I kept them at around 80F during day time and 72F at night. All three ooth were laid on 12/9 so took them 53 days to hatch!! I believed this is due to the cooler weather. My orchid ooth that hatched during Summer took only 42 days to hatch, and i have one that hatched out as early as 34 days of incubation.

Yes Ian, hope the ooth hatch out fine with you too.

 

[robo mantis]

$20 for the whole net cage lol

 

[OGIGA]

Three hatches in one day?! I can't even handle one hatch.

 

[sk8erkho]

Faaarr out!! My god I have never seen anything like that before in my life. That's too much. The pics are phenomenal and the babies add to that for one awesome show, Yen!!

Gotta be proud. I know how I feel when my little Chinese hatch. Though not half the work you put into it, just that feeling that yoou did something right!!

Good luck with those babies,Yen!!

Best Regards!

Khori

 

[joossa]

Very nice!

Yen, do Orchid nymphs tend to eat each other? They all seem to be the same size and do not seem to be accptable prey for each other...

 

[yen_saw]

$20 for the whole net cage lol

Yeah no kidding! I could probably sell for that price if all the females continue to poop ootheca like crazy.

Ogiga, i keep them all together now so it is not time consuming feeding them. I just throw in loads of fruit flies once a day. (Thank God i have plenty of ff cultures ready!) or better still throw in load of ff pupa from spiderpharm (capable of flying) and place a piece of banana in the cage, it will last for a long time.

just that feeling that yoou did something right!!

yes the feeling is great, and most important you know now the mating was successful and that the following ooth will be fertile (the three ooth that hatched were the first from each female).

do Orchid nymphs tend to eat each other?

yes, but in my experience cannibalism occurred usually after L3. L1 nymph are very skittish, they can easily be stressed up by even their own food like fruit flies.

 

[Isis]

You're right, I also observed in various cases of Hymenopodidae, that they are not very aggresive before L3: it is true about Pseudocreobotra, Creobroter and Ceratomantis, which I've kept.

Yen about these amounts of orchids... I am speechless

Keep some more orchids for the future, you are the only person I know who has no trouble in breeding them... well... now it is not breeding but PRODUCING actually

 

[Ian]

What can I say Yen, fanfookintastic, you really are the Orchid mantis king

 

[robo mantis]

i will buy bulk if interested yen

 

[yen_saw]

Keep some more orchids for the future, you are the only person I know who has no trouble in breeding them

I am sure there are hobbyists out there breeding this species alright. Actually I am not going to mass produce orchid mantis next year so that I could concentrate on other new species. But I am sure by then some orchid breeders here will successfully breed this species. I am just glad to have spread the hobby with this species, which is a great species for influence as many other invert hobbyists have turn into rearing praying mantis as pet and addicted to it.

 

[Rick]

You're right, I also observed in various cases of Hymenopodidae, that they are not very aggresive before L3: it is true about Pseudocreobotra, Creobroter and Ceratomantis, which I've kept. Yen about these amounts of orchids... I am speechless

Keep some more orchids for the future, you are the only person I know who has no trouble in breeding them... well... now it is not breeding but PRODUCING actually

No trouble breeding them here. Ooths to follow very soon.

 

[Isis]

I am VERY glad to here this. I am also looking forward for my ooths from Yen to hatch. This is a beautiful species and in Europe not so common (I've seen an offer of 13$ for an L1 nymph!) But recently they are more available in Germany, so the prices went down to a sensible level

Anyway, I've read some strange opinions about keeping orchids like "the best way to keep them alive is to install a computer fan in their container because they are so prone to poor ventilation". This is an exeggeration, isn't it?