What could be possibly wrong?

[Fisherman_Brazil]

What could be possibly wrong?

The orchids are mainly dined on roaches. Before this odd ooth happen, there has been pretty "normal" the ooth been built.

I have noticed the temperature was rised a little bit high, from roughly 28-30c to about 32-33c.

 

[yen_saw]

Aww bummer. Sorry to see the deformed ooth. it could be due to the food or old age. Who knows. How we wish the orchid female speaks english. <_<

 

[Fisherman_Brazil]

Aww bummer. Sorry to see the deformed ooth. it could be due to the food or old age. Who knows. How we wish the orchid female speaks english. <_<

Speaking English and old age can possibly be ruled out. Food must be the primary suspect!

 

[Hypoponera]

Hey Luke,

Sorry to see the mis shaped ooth! I've not had that species, but have seen ooths like that from several other species. The deformed ooths were always produced by females who had NOT been mated yet. Is it possible that she had not been mated? Or maybe she mated but was not fertilized? Have you seen her signalling/calling? I doubt the diet is the problem. Roaches should provide a better source of materials then the flies I use.

 

[Fisherman_Brazil]

Hey Luke,Sorry to see the mis shaped ooth! I've not had that species, but have seen ooths like that from several other species. The deformed ooths were always produced by females who had NOT been mated yet. Is it possible that she had not been mated? Or maybe she mated but was not fertilized? Have you seen her signalling/calling? I doubt the diet is the problem. Roaches should provide a better source of materials then the flies I use.

maybe she mated but was not fertilized?

I have 5 females, all mated and witnessed myself. However, the possibility of not fertile is there! Just something has to be wrong, but exactly what?

 

[Orin]

She may have been interrupted or lost footing during formation, I've seen a number of deformed oothecae of different species and generally the same female produces previous or/and subsequent proper oothecae.

 

[Katnapper]

She may have been interrupted or lost footing during formation, I've seen a number of deformed oothecae of different species and generally the same female produces previous or/and subsequent proper oothecae.

If the deformity is due to something like this as opposed to being old or infertile, does it affect the ability to hatch successfully?

 

[Fisherman_Brazil]

may have been interrupted or lost footing during formation

This is convicing as we can still observe small portion of the ooth is quite alright in my point of view. We shall see if some can still be hatching out.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Orin is more right than wrong. I have same thing happen when I pick up container to feed and not notice the laying ooth process, also have seen it with old age, also, don't know if u used crickets, but Rob B. swears not to feed them crickets, so I stopped. I have two ooths from one female that looked like teardrops, from one ooth 1 nymph and the other 2! So I should of took pic and posted it, but I didn't. So do not discount the ooths.

 

[Rick]

Seen it many times. Often very old mantids do this and if that does not apply to yours then she may have fallen like Orin said. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Katnapper]

Seen it many times. Often very old mantids do this and if that does not apply to yours then she may have fallen like Orin said. I wouldn't worry about it.

When very old mantids do this are the ooths usually still fertile, or infertile?

 

[yen_saw]

It will be interesting to see her next ooth. My guess is if she is not old, it could be that she is not healthy (could be from the dirty food). The fact that the ootheca has eggs exposed shows that she is not ready for it, more like trying to get rid of her load instead of depositing a proper ootheca because of sickness. If the mantis is disturbed during depositing, the ootheca may appear to look "bend" but should still be fully covered by foam if she is healthy. If the mantis have been fallen or miss footing, the oothecae would have been on separate location (and should still be fully covered by foam). I also doubt she actually fall during laying process as the netting appear to provide a good footing for her. Most of the time (especially with orchid mantis oothecae), the ootheca yield very little nymphs or nothing at all. Sorry to make it sounds persimistic. Please keep us update Luke and show another pic of her next ooth (which may look deformed again).

Your orchid ooth reminds me one of the deformed ooth from my orchid female. It was her 10th (probably more) ooth.

She was old and probably sick too. Obviously her ooth yield nothing.

 

[Fisherman_Brazil]

It will be interesting to see her next ooth. My guess is if she is not old, it could be that she is not healthy (could be from the dirty food). The fact that the ootheca has eggs exposed shows that she is not ready for it, more like trying to get rid of her load instead of depositing a proper ootheca because of sickness. If the mantis is disturbed during depositing, the ootheca may appear to look "bend" but should still be fully covered by foam if she is healthy. If the mantis have been fallen or miss footing, the oothecae would have been on separate location (and should still be fully covered by foam). I also doubt she actually fall during laying process as the netting appear to provide a good footing for her. Most of the time (especially with orchid mantis oothecae), the ootheca yield very little nymphs or nothing at all. Sorry to make it sounds persimistic. Please keep us update Luke and show another pic of her next ooth (which may look deformed again).Your orchid ooth reminds me one of the deformed ooth from my orchid female. It was her 10th (probably more) ooth.

She was old and probably sick too. Obviously her ooth yield nothing.

What an achievement, the 10th ooth! That is Who's who among mantis world.

The ooth cited actually is the second from the female. An opinion from another panel suggesting water residue on the netting may be acused as the suspect, that is another good possiblity, by observation from the fact, good part of the ooth still remaining literally intact.

 

[Rick]

That one part of the ooth looks ok. You may get a few nymphs out of that.

 

[kamakiri]

The formation of the ooth started normally. What I see is a 'structural' failure while it was being laid. Heat, humidity, perhaps a mis-step could have been factors with that section failing. My first thought is that it did not harden fast enough. It could also be the geometry of the lid. Sometimes mantises can't turn the corner when laying an ooth. Don't worry about it, but I would keep this one. It is probably fertile and would be a good specimen to observe prior to and during hatching. Please update us with her next ooth.

 

[Fisherman_Brazil]

Hatching rate not good, only a dozen. But it does hatch!

 

[Katnapper]

Hatching rate not good, only a dozen. But it does hatch!

That's great, Luke! Thank you for letting us know... it might save someone from throwing out a deformed one thinking there is no chance of hatching.

 

[OGIGA]

Wow, I must say that I am thoroughly surprised! I'm surprised that you didn't give up on it and that it actually hatched. Congratulations!

 

[Fisherman_Brazil]

I was wrong as further examining - there are more than two dozen healthy nymphs!