S. limbata breeding 2009

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Peter said:
It's very interesting and rare to get culture updates like this through a series of generations. Keep them coming!
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Will do...I'm glad somebody is listening! Sometimes feel like I'm typing at myself! :lol:

kamakiri said:
It's been over two weeks since Mandy's last ooth (6/2) and she hasn't been eating, so I'm hoping for her second ooth any day now...
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At least Mandy was a good girl and was finishing up her second ooth by the time I got up this morning (6/22). Just after I typed the above post and went to bed, I did see her tap the roof of her enclosure with her ovipositor and that's exacty where the ooth was this morning. Yay.

 
kamakiri said:
Of course, I needed to type that in order to encourage her. She's not doing too well, but is laying an ooth between the branch she is barely hanging from and the bottom of the plastic cage. I hope at least a few will be able to hatch from that one.I think lack of humidity may be the main issue with my first batch of females and the loss of Vanessa and Marge. The second batch seems to be doing better with some misting, and Cherisse seems to be doing better, and well, at least she isn't egg bound. Thanks to hypoponera for pointing out that his adults 'respond well to increased humidity'.
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Well, there's some good news and bad news...

Cherisse's laid while barely alive stuck on the zipper upside down ooth has hatched! :D That was just over two months incubating in the mid-70s fahrenheit from 5/1 to 7/10 yesterday. While I was only hoping to get a few nymphs from that ooth it hatched out over 32! :D So I'm guessing that Mandy's first ooth from 6/2 should hatch before 8/10 since the average temp should be slightly warmer now that it's early summer. I guess we'll see.

The bad news is that Mandy died earlier in the week 7/8/09. :( Apparently, there were problems with her reproductive parts. When I last saw her alive, the vavles were pointed up out of the ovipositor/'6th segment' with what I'm guessing was unfrothed ooth material stuck all around. Hated feeling there was nothing I could do to help her, but we all know that's sometimes just the way it is. I am also a little disappointed since she was simply a favorite pet, the only one I had considered pinning after she died.

Mandy:

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Hey, thanks guys. :) Cherisse's ooth continued to hatch through this morning, about another 10 yesterday and watched 5 more this morning so far.

 
Great news! Mandy's first ooth from 6/2 hatched this morning exactly eight weeks later! I was expecting it to hatch within another 10 days based on Cherisse's ooth incubation time. I don't have an exact count, but looks like 100-120 guesstimating.

 
From the ooth that hatched on 7/28, there were 105 in the first two days, and 31 from the next two days...for a total of 136 over 4 days of hatching. Most of these are 'camo' patterned, and some appear to be dark red. When they were hatching, they were cream with red at some of the joints.

I put Mandy's second ooth from 6/22 in the fridge. Since there was a decent hatch out from the first ooth, I thought it would be prudent to 'save' these for another day, effectively half way through their incubation period. I hope it doesn't kill them, but I am betting that they will be okay.

Cherisse's nymphs are mostly L3 now, and I have maybe 15-20 and will separate soon as they are starting to be more interested in consuming one another instead of the feeder hydei.

Sandra's ooth from 6/3 has still not hatched, and since it was kept so close to Mandy's...I'm beginning to wonder if it is fertile...now that I type that, it will probably hatch tomorrow! :lol:

 
Sandra's ooth started hatching this morning. Not sure about the reason for the 'delay' since it was only laid a day after Mandy's first and was kept right next to it. I guess I'll never know. Perhaps a couple dozen today, and I'd expect more tomorrow.

EDIT:

I guess I got my records all messed up. Sandra's first ooth was from 6/21 NOT 6/3...so it is just in time! One day shy of 8 weeks!

EDIT 2:

Separated the first day nymphs from the hatching container tonight and it had 35 total. Would have waited 2 days to feed and separate, but several were getting stuck under a paper towel at the bottom and I had to take that out when I realized it was pinning several of the nymphs.

 
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Update:

Cherisse's nymphs L4 & L5...Mostly green and a few with red/brown spots on the back tergites/wing buds/thorax

Mandy's nymphs L3 & L4...Small percentage of brown/pink and lime-green to yellow. Others are green. Few are camo patterend now.

Sandra's nymphs mostly L2 now...most shed the camo and are solid green with very few tan.

With all communally housed groups cannibalism has been prettly low for now as they have been pretty well fed. 'special' colors and L4+ mantises have been separated and housed individually. I hope to have a breeding army soon!

EDIT:

Also plan to take out Mandy's 2nd ooth from the fridge tomorrow, it will have been exactly 1 month and would be predicted to hatch in about 4 more weeks.

 
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Hey kamakiri, do you have any pics of Limbata with its wings out (showing the second set of wings)? I know someone with an unidentified mantis and we can't decide whether or not it's limbata, carolina, ect. Thanks a lot and congrats on the success.

 
MantidLord said:
Hey kamakiri, do you have any pics of Limbata with its wings out (showing the second set of wings)? I know someone with an unidentified mantis and we can't decide whether or not it's limbata, carolina, ect. Thanks a lot and congrats on the success.
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Sorry :( I don't have any of the hind wings. But the adult limbata females have yellow or yellow/clear speckled wings and the males have been a dark/clear speckling. I wish I did take some pics, but the girls rarely had reason to display. Some of them would flutter their wings when I picked up their containers, but otherwise I rarely saw the wings.

I did have some of the males out on occasion to fly...but their wings are not that spectacular.

 
Thanks anyway for the info. For some reason I have the ability to make my mantids freak out on me. So Limbata are yellow in the female. Cool. Is there any other characteristics distinguishing the stagmomantis species besides ooths and hind wings? For instance, when the mystery mantis was a nymph, its arms had these small stripe-like markings on them. And its head and body aren't proportional. At first we thought it was a budwing. But now that it's an adult female, its wings are too large. So we figured it's a stagmomantis species.

 

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