Sybilla mantids in love <3

[spawn]

So, I had a pair of S. dolosa and S. pretiosa for several months now. However, one mate from either pair died. I did buy another S. doloosa, but it's a couple molts away from adulthood, so I couldn't wait for that to transform. Yadda yadda yadda, I decided to try and cross them. I have a female S. dolosa and an S. pretiosa in the same 2.5 gal critter keeper. They're indistinguishable from one another species-wise, which makes me think the original stock was mislabeled, but I did get the S. dolosa from Lars in Germany, so methinks he knows what he's talking about! I haven't posted pictures here in a while, and last time I tried Photobucket decided not to cooperate (this is the only site my photobucket does not work on), so let's see how it goes:



S. pretiosa male - note the bent thorax from a poorly planned molt in a short container - my fault



Another one of the male



The hybrid pair S. dolosa female/S. pretiosa male



Another one of the female



The female looking at a successful cross-bred of an ooth! I have four ooths total. Can't wait to see if they hatch. Have yet to remove them from the critter-keeper.

 

[ABbuggin]

Interesting! My female sybilla just shed to adult a week ago, and the male is due within a week.

 

[tier]

Ohh yahh, interesting. I also wonder if the nymphs - if some will hatch - will be fertile later on....

If they will be fertile, you invented a new species, and all of us have to call you god ;-)

regars

 

[MantidLord]

First you have to find out if they were the same species after all. I do hope they hatch. That would be cool.

 

[Kruszakus]

Mating S. petriosa and S. dolosa? That's ********! There are tons of people who experienced weak and infertile nymphs because of such a crossing.

 

[kakistos]

You have to be completely sure of the species you cross, if it's the same species after all then this is all useless science.

I the ooths do hatch, I would not sell the nymphs because maybe you will contaminate the species with hybrids, like is done with some beetle species.

 

[MantidLord]

Or he could sell them to some entomoligical research lab.

 

[spawn]

Well, as I said, I'm not sure of anything, other than there are ooths and she has been laying weekly. I'm fairly certain Lars knows his stuff (the dolosa came from him), and I believe I got the pretiosa from someone in the states. I can't remember who sold it to me - if you sold me an L5 or older male S. pretiosa in the last 6 months, please speak up.

As for "weak crossings", I did not know of its history. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have done it. Anyone know of a lab I could sell to check progeny?

 

[tier]

Offer me some pics of the lobes and I tell you what`s it...

(Lars knowes what he is selling, tats right)

 

[spawn]

On the bottom of the thorax? I can take some tomorrow night (too sleepy today) and email them to ya'.

 

[spawn]

Tier is not answering my email/PM for some reason. Is anyone else here available to look at some close-up pictures [by email] to help identify the exact species of either parent?

 

[tier]

Tier is not answering my email/PM for some reason. Is anyone else here available to look at some close-up pictures [by email] to help identify the exact species of either parent?

Hi

Dont take it personal, Im too busy in these days and had no time to ckeck the pictures yet, sorry man.

regards

 

[spawn]

No problem. I have some book hunting to do now! Thanks for the references.

 

[spawn]

So I haven't found those books yet but I'm still looking for documentation on the difference between the species, because as it was, they seemed to be almost identical minus size. Female has long died and the male is still eating like usual, and they laid in total 8 egg sacs, with two of them having a dar blackish tar color on the end, and one got chewed up pretty bad by a cricket. The eggs are incubating and I will report here when they hatch how the offspring look.

 

[spawn]

Nevermind. I don't even know why I believed one of these could be S. dolosa to begin with. Colors and wing shape totally match pretiosa for both sexes. They're pretiosa.

 

[kamakiri]

So the ooths all hatched normally?

 

[spawn]

Ooths have not hatched yet. They are incubating.