Tenodera in my garage

[Kalemaster]

A number of years back, I had a tenodera sinensis who left an ooth attached to the lid of an aquarium. I hatched the ooth, sold the nymphs, etc. and after a few months, stashed the empty aquarium (with the remains of the ooth) in my garage. Two years later, I discovered this:

I'm not sure how it survived in the garage, but it was a good 5 inches long when I found it, so I must have other bugs living in the garage if it was that well-fed.

 

[Morpheus uk]

Nice mantis, dont think its from the ooth, would of matured way before 2 years, must of snuck in somewhere lol

 

[Rick]

That mantis did not come from the ooth you mentioned. It would be impossible. It most likely found its way into the garage when you opened the door.

 

[Kalemaster]

That mantis did not come from the ooth you mentioned. It would be impossible. It most likely found its way into the garage when you opened the door.

Yeah, one would think so, but I didn't release any, so it would have had to come from somewhere else, and this was in March or early April when I found it (in Iowa), so somebody would have had to have raised it indoors for a bit, unless it was in the garage all winter, as I've never heard of the adults overwintering here, only the ooths. *shrugs* I have had ooths hatch after a couple of years, in the right conditions, but what confused me was that this one was an adult and that the ooth had already hatched, so yeah, it does seem impossible..

 

[Birdfly]

Yeah, one would think so, but I didn't release any, so it would have had to come from somewhere else, and this was in March or early April when I found it (in Iowa), so somebody would have had to have raised it indoors for a bit, unless it was in the garage all winter, as I've never heard of the adults overwintering here, only the ooths. *shrugs* I have had ooths hatch after a couple of years, in the right conditions, but what confused me was that this one was an adult and that the ooth had already hatched, so yeah, it does seem impossible..

Its not an adult yet but not far off, i would have though it was less than 4 inches as adults usually only reach around the 4 inch mark, maybe a bit longer.

Cant explain why it was around in March/April though, maybe they are brumating in certain parts of usa ? <_<

 

[Morpheus uk]

Its a sub if that helps

 

[Rick]

Yeah, one would think so, but I didn't release any, so it would have had to come from somewhere else, and this was in March or early April when I found it (in Iowa), so somebody would have had to have raised it indoors for a bit, unless it was in the garage all winter, as I've never heard of the adults overwintering here, only the ooths. *shrugs* I have had ooths hatch after a couple of years, in the right conditions, but what confused me was that this one was an adult and that the ooth had already hatched, so yeah, it does seem impossible..

No way it was in the garage all winter. Would not have survived. Also never seen or heard of a chinese ooth taking two years to hatch. That mantis is also not an adult.

 

[Kruszakus]

5' long? Man, you are pulling our legs here, right?

 

[Ben.M]

5" sub-adult chinese :blink:

 

[Kalemaster]

Yeah, now you see why I was so shocked. For scale, that's a newprint tube on which the mantis is standing. About the same size as a wrapping paper tube, a bit thicker. The cardboard is mayber 1/4 inch thicker, but the interior diameter is about the same, so the external diameter is probably about 1/2 inch larger than a wrapping paper tube.

Five inches isn't huge for a Chinese mantis. It's big, but I had bigger. The ones I had were routinely 4-6 inches in length when full grown. I think we measured my biggest female at about 16 centimeters, which would be about 6 inches. I have photos of her somewhere, although they're of lesser quality as she was pre-digital camera, but let me see what other photos I can find that give some scale for her, as she is the largest T A. sinensis I have seen, so you may be interested in those photos as well.

 

[Ben.M]

It is big for a sub-adult