Shield mantis (Rhombodera sp)

[yen_saw]

finally the first ooth hatched, in strange pattern, about a dozen hatched the first day, and today it exploded into hundreds :shock: my guess is about 300 nymphs, now i wonder how many can survive.

This is when i first found it started to hatch

This one is taken about one hour later, some are still hatching. ekkkk.... my wife will freak out looking at this

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Wonderful, Yen! That is one of the nicest feelings, To see your work pay off.

 

[yen_saw]

Thanks Mikhails, now i change my mind and need your fruit flies ASAP!! i will pm you.

 

[Andrew]

Yen...be sure to save some nymphs for me.

 

[OGIGA]

Wow, they look like they really want to get out of there.

 

[yen_saw]

Will have enough for you Andrew, unless all 300 of them drop dead in one night!!

p/s: funny orange and banana story there

Yes Ogiga, they are all still in the 32 oz container, seems to stress tham out a bit, i will put them in a foot cube net cage later today.

Update on the species identity (if anyone care), a headless male sample was sent to Christian for identification few weeks ago, and it appear to resemble Rh. Basilis at first but after further comparison with other available Rhombodera sp. stocks, this species could be a unique species due to different genitalia part. So another adult pair is on its way to Christian for further species identification. It'll not be easy as there are so many species in this genus. Will keep update.

 

[Andrew]

Will have enough for you Andrew, unless all 300 of them drop dead in one night!!p/s: funny orange and banana story there

Heheh, thanks.

 

[Ian]

Wow Yen...good stuff! Those ootheca really are huge, you must be gutloading the food well as well as gutloading the mantis.

Would certainly be interested in some when they are a little larger

 

[yen_saw]

Ha yea Ian! if her ab is elastic i'll sure to stuff her up like a balloon!

Just pm me when you are ready buddy!

 

[yen_saw]

One more ooth hatched today, this one hatched out exactly after 30 days incubation.

 

[Andrew]

Nice! The nymphs you sent me are all well and started molting into L3 already.

I can't imagine what it must be like having thousands of the things to take care of. I'd either pack a bunch up and dump them on some other person or use it as an excuse to get a chameleon or something.

 

[OGIGA]

Oh my goodness Yen, it looks like a jungle in there! Have you moved them to a bigger container yet?

 

[yen_saw]

Nice! The nymphs you sent me are all well and started molting into L3 already. I can't imagine what it must be like having thousands of the things to take care of. I'd either pack a bunch up and dump them on some other person or use it as an excuse to get a chameleon or something.

Great! thanks for taking great care of them Andrew. you will start to see the sign of "shield" around 5th instar. So just two more moults

Yeah i am getting close to that figure. which is why i am getting rid of the extra ootheca. i lost one of the female recently for unknown reason (just drop dead after her 4th ooth) but the other 6 still laying ooth every 3 week. my next ooth is expected to hatch this weekend.

I am hoping to hear other success hatching as i am dropping this species, the stock in Germany has unfortunately failed to breed (unfertilized ooth after mating) but there are adult breeding stock in UK too so maybe something positive from there. Hey if i can do it, everyone else can.

Oh my goodness Yen, it looks like a jungle in there! Have you moved them to a bigger container yet?

yes Calvin, all the hatchling from 4 recently hatched ooth are happily in 3 separate foot cube net cages now. Not as stressful as when all cramped up in the 32 oz plastic container.