Slow grower - native species

[bugboymark]

Thought I would throw this out there to see if anyone else has a similar experience...

Raised a handful of native Carolina mantises I found in Davenport, IA.  4 nymphs I collected in late July.  Three of them grew and matured normally.  3 of the 4 molted to adulthood by mid-late August. One male and two females.  Fortunately, the male was pretty virile and mated at least once with each female.  After living "a good life", he died (probably of exhaustion!) two weeks ago.  Both females are still alive and I have 5 ooths between them so far.  The odd thing is mantis #4.  He was about the same size as the other three when I caught him in July.  No physical deformities.  Ate and acted normally the whole time.  But he just finally molted to adulthood this morning!  First day of November!  I'm guessing its just an anomaly and it happens in nature (though I'm sure he never would have reached adulthood had he been left outdoors).  Anyone else with experience raising local/native species seen this?  Over 30 years of raising Chinese and Carolinas...and this is a first for me.  

Unfortunately for him, both of my females seem to be winding down after all the ooth laying.  So I think this late-bloomer is SOL when it comes to breeding. Sometimes slow and steady does NOT win the race!   

 

[cwebster]

I have one that stayed tiny and on his apparent final molt has just tiny shriveled wings/buds.  He is like a dwarf or something. 

 

[Ocelotbren]

I don't have any experience with that, but I did see a topic that isn't quite the same thing but also related to abnormal growth:



In this case though, it was due to a skipped instar, and could possibly be what @cwebster experienced.  I'm sure both situations are pretty rare though!

 

[Okoboji22]

I have one that stayed tiny and on his apparent final molt has just tiny shriveled wings/buds.  He is like a dwarf or something. 

Got a picture of him? That Sounds interesting, especially the whole shriveled wing/bud thing.

 

[Rick]

I don't think what you experienced is the same situation but every now and then I find a nymph late in the year. These nymphs nearly always turn out to be parastized by certain types of flies. I believe the fly larvae that are living inside the mantis take just enough nutrients to slow the growth of the mantis. I believe I posted a thread about it a few years ago. 

 

[hibiscusmile]

grannyma say Yuck!

 

[cat_h]

I have 4 Epaphrodita, all received early september at the same stage. They've gone through 3 moults since, within 24hours of each other. Except for one, who is a full moult behind. She went to L4 24hrs before the others levelled up to L5. No idea why, same temps, same food etc. Just a weirdo