What in the world?

[Andrew]

I bought a bunch of bluebottle maggots from Grubco about a week ago, maybe a few days over. They quickly pupated, and I've since been waiting for them to hatch.

Well, they are overdue, so I went out to check them this morning, and found that one of my subadult female Idolomantis ended up cannibalizing the adult male. Obviously irritated, I grabbed a handful of the pupae from the tub in the bottom of the cage, and was able to crumble them in my hands. They're empty, but nothing ever hatched from them. I'm unfamiliar with any pests that could cause this.

Anyone have any idea what happened?

 

[PhilinYuma]

I bought a bunch of bluebottle maggots from Grubco about a week ago, maybe a few days over. They quickly pupated, and I've since been waiting for them to hatch. Well, they are overdue, so I went out to check them this morning, and found that one of my subadult female Idolomantis ended up cannibalizing the adult male. Obviously irritated, I grabbed a handful of the pupae from the tub in the bottom of the cage, and was able to crumble them in my hands. They're empty, but nothing ever hatched from them. I'm unfamiliar with any pests that could cause this.

Anyone have any idea what happened?

Sounds as though they were parasitized. You might want to notify Grubco and thoroughly clean everything that you put them in. Tough luck.

 

[Rick]

Were they in a sealed container? If so then wouldn't any parasite be in there as well? I get mine from Grubco and never had any issues. I do only take as many from the fridge as I need. Maybe they just died for some reason and dried up?

 

[Andrew]

I have contacted Grubco, but as Rick mentioned, there ought to be hundreds of little parasites crawling around the cage...which there don't seem to be. :blink:

 

[Peter Clausen]

Did you put pupae in the habitat or larvae? Is it possible that the pupae you put in were just empty shells in the first place? If they weren't empty to begin with, I suspect the flies hatched and were consumed by the mantises. And then your female ate the male. Just a theory...

When you crumbled them, did you see any signs of larvae or flies within or were they just empty shells?

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yes, the more that I think about the parasite theory, the more I dislike it. Even if the maggots had been parasitized after you received them, it seems unlikely that all of them would have met the same fate. After emerging, flies leave the empty pupa pretty much intact, so this sounds like a more plausible explanation.