Spring...M. religiosa

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sbugir

sbugir

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Well, it's spring, and that means babies of all sorts.

Yesterday my M. religiosa ooth began to hatch in just 3 weeks after incubation :unsure: . I was hoping to release them in the next month when I thought they would hatch... Nonetheless they are very cute, and are by far the most awesome looking nymph I have ever seen. The heads are crazy, they literally look like the typical cartoon alien-types.

Anyway, I've heard that these are very difficult to take care of due to them being a rather weak species. So, I figured I would try to start a blog/breeding diary thingy to see what makes these guys seem so difficult.

Half of these mantids will go back to where I found them, and the other half will be mine to raise and keep up with this log.

To begin with an update I figured I would show some pics with some babies on the ooth... (these are poor pictures, sorry).

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The hatching began on April 11th, approximately only 20 nymphs hatched.

April 12th hatched about 50... and only half of the ootheca is hatched with another ready to go.

Diapause began on November 1st, and they were taken out March 21st to begin incubation.

 
Awe they look so cute. Congratulations and please keep a breeding blog. I have mine outside for incubation and am waiting for them to hatch. I'll try to contribute to give information on the species as well. Good luck and keep us posted.

 
MantidLord said:
Awe they look so cute. Congratulations and please keep a breeding blog. I have mine outside for incubation and am waiting for them to hatch. I'll try to contribute to give information on the species as well. Good luck and keep us posted.
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Thanks man! I'd definitely love to hear your contributions and experiences with this species.

 
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Good luck on them!

They aren't hard to take care of, I have some L3's, if you can get them past their first molt they are pretty hardy mantids. Mine turn out yellow after their first shed :)

At L1 they can take on D. Hydeis, let us know if you need any info on raising this species.

 
plant said:
Good luck on them!

They aren't hard to take care of, I have some L3's, if you can get them past their first molt they are pretty hardy mantids. Mine turn out yellow after their first shed :)

At L1 they can take on D. Hydeis, let us know if you need any info on raising this species.
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Thanks, but it's not so much the care I'm after (I have a few more difficult species ;) ). I just want to discover what makes them "so" difficult for other people... Perhaps in your experience there is not much difficulty. It'd be pretty neat to maybe compare humidity levels and temperature and maybe find out what makes them "tick".

 
Good idea, especially considering they're so wide spread. I wonder why they're considered hard by some, yet beginners by others. What were the conditions (in terms of temp and humidity) that you incubated them in? I'm trying for the "natural" approach, so I imagine they'll hatch much later. Another factor is how your nymphs will behave having hatched "earlier". Again, I'll do some observations and comparisons of my own and let you know.

 
The conditions kept for diapause was an average of 45 degrees Fahrenheit. They were then moved to a 70+ degree room (mine) where they hatched in three weeks. The ambient humidity is 40% which does surprise me as there were no stragglers. It intrigues me to see how many nymphs can come out of one ooth without one straggler, however this could be proven wrong in the next few days as the ooth will most likely continue to hatch.

I have noticed that the fresh exoskeleton is not the typical white/yellow color seen in most mantids. It seems to be pale orange, very cool.

Tomorrow will be the feeding day, as well as a movement to a new enclosure where hopefully stress levels will be reduced to ensure fewest causalities.

 
Thanks for the info. Mine were laid in October. Diapaused outside in with an average winter temperature of 52-55 Fahrenheit. It started to heat up about two weeks ago up to the 80s. And it's been fluctuating between high 60s and low 80s. I've misted a couple of times, but haven't really monitored humidity. Let me know what you think of these conditions. I might have to start spraying more though or bring them inside where it's a stable room temp.

I think separating them is a good idea. I think one reason why nymphs die in bulk is do to stress from constantly being next to each other. When mine hatch, I want to separate one ooth and keep the others together to see a difference.

 
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None of my 3 oothecas went through a diapause but they all hatched out normally. I keep them at 77 degrees and mist them when the substrate is dry, which seems fine for them

 
Yeah, I've moved one of my ooths inside with the other outside so it can hatch out there. Let's see what happens.

 
plant said:
None of my 3 oothecas went through a diapause but they all hatched out normally. I keep them at 77 degrees and mist them when the substrate is dry, which seems fine for them
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Very interesting, they hatched w/o a diapause? I will definitely try that the next time I get an ooth. Humph, I always thought they needed a diapause, guess not :) .

 
I could've sworn that there was a thread a while back talking about this species and diapause. It was a couple pages long too.

 
UPDATE

4/13

Second ooth began to hatch... only 4 nymphs as of today came out.

The first ooth hatched another 20 nymphs, there is about another one-third of the ooth to go. I finally saw my first straggler today :( .

I am already seeing causalities most likely due to stress due to the proximity of the mantids, and I totally neglected them today... I will do my best to move them into a far larger container tomorrow to see how things progress. I am impressed how both ooths hatched at a relatively close timing for some reason. I don't know why, but I just am, perhaps it's silly...? Thus said about tomorrow, tomorrow will most likely begin the cannibalistic nature of mantids as it has been about three days. Time will only tell.

 
UPDATE 4/14

Second ooth hatched approximately 30 nymphs at 4:44 PM... I found it rather unusual hatching this late in the day.

First ooth had no signs of activity today. It still has 1/3rd of a zipper untouched... Who knows if there are eggs there?

Approximately 30 nymphs died most likely due to stress, I can begin to see why it is slightly difficult to raise these to adult, nonetheless I still have plenty :)

 
Great to hear that they're hatching, and sorry about the early losses. I bet (like someone else said) once they molt a little bit, they'll be easier. How big is the container that you were keeping them in together? I'd imagine stress is the factor, besides just the weak ones.

 
They are separated into 8 32 oz containers. I have noticed this species does not climb plastic well at such a low instar... Aspen fiber or a climbing surface is definitely needed. When on their backs they flail ridiculously, far more dramatic than any other mantis I have seen.

 
I've noticed the same with my nymphs, they fall on their backs and thrash around crazily. seems to wear off after a few days though.

 

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