So it has been more than a month for my I.O. ooths...

[joossa]

Hi everyone.

I need a little advice on my I. oratoria ooth(I will only concentrate on the first ooth I got). She was caught in the wild and was NOT mated in captivity. Here goes:

-October 17, 2006: Ooth is laid and left in the cage with the mother at room temp.

-November 30, 2006: I place the ooth in the fridge for a 3-week cold period.

-December 2, 2006: Ooth is taken out of cold period and is placed in a container and begins incubation at constant temperatures between 70-75F. The container has a layer of papertowels at the bottom to hold water. It's base and sides are sprayed daily. It also is set up to have plenty of air circulation.

The ooth has not hatched. Should I start to worry, or does it still need time? Should I chandg any conditions?

 

[Rick]

Give it more time. May take a month or two after the cold period. Really don't think you need to mist daily if you have something in there to hold some moisture. I would just remoisten the papertowels every couple days. Don't need to go overboard with the moisture/spraying.

 

[joossa]

Ok, thank you!

 

[joossa]

Okay, I have waited long enough (they still haven't hatched). I am going to slice one of the ooths and see...

 

[Rick]

Just take a thin slice top to bottom. Let us know what you see.

 

[Jay]

I incubated oothecas of this species for a while before having them hatch. I gave up on one for a while and then all of a sudden it hatched. From my experience I would suggest keeping them around 80-84 F and moderate humidity. The hatchlings are really small.

 

[joossa]

Okay... I just got extremely excited!

I sliced the biggest ooth I had. I took my dissection knife and sliced a very thin slice at one one end of the ooth from the top to the bottom.

Here's what I found:

-The ooth had six vertical oval shaped compartments. Each one getting progressively larger from left to right.

-In each “compartment” on the ooth and on the slice, I initially saw a shiny goo.

-I used my powerful magnifying glass (I. oratoria ooths are very small) to further inspect this goo.

-The goo turned out to be little shiny orange-greenish Jello-like oval blobs. They reminded me of the tiny juice compartments in an orange or lemon slice, except not as squishy looking. (like my description? lol)

So I guess they are fertile... Now the question is why have they taken so long to hatch? And when will they hatch?

Thanks!

 

[Rick]

They may not be fertile. I don't know much about that species but with most mantids after a couple months of incuation you should see developed nymphs, not blobs of goo. Your description of how they look like the inside of an orange is spot on.

 

[joossa]

They may not be fertile. I don't know much about that species but with most mantids after a couple months of incuation you should see developed nymphs, not blobs of goo. Your description of how they look like the inside of an orange is spot on.

Hmm… Maybe I should have copied the conditions an ooth goes through in my area after fall a bit better: At least 2 months of cold (frost overnight) weather, followed by a rapid increase of temperatures in the spring. The region is a high desert and we don’t get much humidity...

I’m going to do what Jay suggested and increase their day temperatures a bit and wait… I’ll post my findings.