Selective Breeding?

[Devilpacker]

Their is a lot of talk about crossbreeding but what about Selective breeding, like by breeding the larger nymphs of say a a chinese Mantis could this increase the size of their off spring over time, if so by how much and how long till you see a difference?

 

[Rick]

Not sure. Seems most of the same species are just the average size. Though I have seen a few individuals that were bigger than the rest. I guess you could breed those but I don't know if the offspring would come out larger or not.

 

[Leah]

There are a lot of breeders that practice selective breeding, for whatever trait, the problem is that most dont follow through enough generations to really know for sure if there was a difference.

Some things are pretty easy to breed for, color, temperament, longevity etc.

 

[yen_saw]

Hey Devilpacker, interesting!! believed selective breeding should produce a larger mantis on average but i haven't try that myself. I will try that soon, but it may take years before i know the answer

 

[Jesse]

You may be able to selectively breed for color, but adult size is highly influenced by temperature and nutrition, especially for the temperate species.

 

[Devilpacker]

i have five baby chinese mantis im going to try breeding the larger female and male to see if i get a result