What species of Rhombodera is this?

[Cosmic]

One of my female Rhombodera sp moulted to adult today, I only have female's so need to find one or more males, but these were sold to me as just Rhombodera sp so I want to be sure exactly what species of Rhombodera it is, hope someone can help me!

 

[Morpheus uk]

Ah yeah i know, they are Rhombodera sp XD

Lol everyone i know refers to them as Rhombodera sp so just ask for that and you`ll eventuall get one if some one comes along

 

[Cosmic]

Ah yeah i know, they are Rhombodera sp XDLol everyone i know refers to them as Rhombodera sp so just ask for that and you`ll eventuall get one if some one comes along

Thanks, thought it was but wanted to be 100% sure before trying to find one, didn't want to end up with a male of another species.

 

[obregon562]

Cosmic,

I have the exact same problem. My female matured, and now i need a male! Our bugs seem to look 100% the same, so if i ever find a male i'll let you know who i got it from!

Hope you find a guy!

Frankie

 

[Hypoponera]

Who, or where, did you get your mantid from? As the exact species seems to be in doubt, you might have a better chance of getting a male from the same source. Or from some one who bought from the same person/place.

I am not sure if all the Rhombodera sp in the US are the same species. We might actually have more then one species from the same genus here.

 

[mantidsandgeckos]

Looks like rhombodera basalis

 

[Cosmic]

I have the exact same problem. My female matured, and now i need a male! Our bugs seem to look 100% the same, so if i ever find a male i'll let you know who i got it from!

Thanks, but I'm in the U.K so that may be a problem, I'm sure one will come along!

 

[Christian]

There are just two stocks of this taxon in stock at moment. One originates from us and is Rh. basalis, the other one is from Yen and may be the same species, but this is not clear yet. Yen's stock is from Indonesia, so try not to mix them up with the Malaysian ones!

 

[Hypoponera]

Hello Christian,

Have you sent samples of R. basalis to anyone here in the USA? It would be interesting to track the species movement and compare to the species brought in by Yen.

 

[Christian]

The US guys seem to have mostly Yen's species only. As he sent some to Europe, there are actually both stocks occurring here. I don't know if there were basalis sent recently to the US (older stocks have obviously disappeared). Rick has some I think, but as he never answers questions about his stock I cannot track them back. I didn't sent any as I don't breed this species.

 

[yen_saw]

To avoid confusion, it is best to ask where the stock was originally from. I sent some nymphs of my Rhombodera sp. breeding stock to both UK and Germany breeders. With successful breeding, I have also sent my next generation oothecae to France. As far as i know, the stock originally from me have been able to breed overseas so it might have spread further than that by now. As in the USA, it was sold among most hobbyists and breeders around and almost certain most available here are the same species as my original stock as there was basically no Rhombodera sp. available here in the USA (that is from Germany) when i first bred this species. Rick's stock is the first or second generation of my original stock (correct me if i am wrong Rick).

As you are in UK, Cosmic, for your tracking purpose, my stock went to Matt, Lee Reiley, Sheldon, and Gary(Birdfly), and it was subsequently passed on to other breeders like Rob, Graham, etc.

 

[Hypoponera]

Thanks for the information. If true, then it is likely that we only have a single species over here being generally available. Makes breeding easier if we don't need to worry about which species we have.

 

[yen_saw]

THat's right Mike, very likely. As I was told the Rh. basilis stock in Germany was difficult to breed and less likely to spread beyond Germany the time when my Rhombodera sp. was available. But more Rhombodera sp. stock were subsequently brought back to Germany from Malaysia which i have no idea of their availability or breeding status by then as i was quitting with this species.

 

[Hypoponera]

Now we just need a way to identify which species we have here! If it isn't R. basalis, what is it? Does anyone know which species of this genus are found in Indonesia? Maybe it would be possible to narrow down the possibilities.

 

[Christian]

That's my fault. Yen sent me some specimens, but I was just able to investigate one of them. I can't find the other ones at moment. My room looks like a gigantic mantis mortuary, with dried but not pinned dead mantids everywhere. Or in other words, the pure chaos. The first male I checked corresponded morphologically to Rh. basalis (which likely is the same as Rh. valida; if this is true, Rh. valida has to be used due to priority) but had some slight differences in the genitalia. I need to check another specimen to see if the first one was aberrant or if there are indeed differences. In case I should not find Yen's specimens soon, it would be good to get some dead males or dead male rear ends from some people who breed this species so I can compare this species at last with Rh. valida/basalis.

However, in Germany were 2-3 stocks available over the years, despite the one of Yen, but breeding turned out to be rather difficult. Actually, there is only the last one, brought from Malaysia, still in stock.

 

[Hypoponera]

Hello Christian,

What were the problems with breeding? About how many samples would you need for the comparisons? I have 10 nymphs at the moment and might be able to send some when they die.

 

[Christian]

Hi.

I need some adult males or, if they were eaten, the rear part of them, I only need the genitalia. About 2-4 should be sufficient.

The problems regarding breeding were mainly due to high temperatures. The first stock (from Cameron Highlands) didn't support any temperatures above 28°, better were 24-26° C by day and 17-20° by night. The other stocks were from the lowland, but they, nevertheless, got the vomiting sickness if they got bad crickets and/or more than 24° C by night - which can be a problem here in summer. Once they start vomiting, they will never be fertile as adults. So many people didn't have fertile ooths despite of apparently successful pairings. Not to talk about the ones who failed due to a lack of experience.