Why do brown mantids grow faster than greens?

[Doid11]

Hi, I saw 4 adult female brown European mantids tonight while looking for Chinese mantids to study.

I also saw 3 more per adult green mantids "saw 2 nymphs still too", it's weird. They where still young uNlike the fully grown brown European mantids. Could someone help me, because I think the mantids in the area might have some sort of growth stunt.

 

[hierodula]

Well its not the color that matters, but its the conditions, more food and higher temp equals faster growth. It probably coincidence that greenies were smaller. Maybe the area was mostly brown, so the brownies camoflauged better.

 

[patrickfraser]

Remember that not all mantids hatch at the same time either, which could account for size difference due to age differences / instars. Just a thought.

 

[Mime454]

Remember that not all mantids hatch at the same time either, which could account for size difference due to age differences / instars. Just a thought.

That's what I was thinking too.

 

[Domanating]

If body heat matters for accelerating mantids growth, then because brown is darker than green they can absorb more heat than green ones so they grow faster. In theory.

 

[Chivalry]

I have had communal mantises in the same conditions, obviously, because they were all together, and they grew at very different rates. For example, I have a community of O. gracilis that are all from the same hatch. One male is adult already and I have one (the "runt of the litter", I guess) who is still L4 or so, and pretty much everything in between. The 2 females from that hatch have kept up with the adult male in molts and they're subadult at the moment.

How much they eat matters, too, and I imagine that it's warmer in parts of my 12" net cube than other spots... lots of variables.

 

[Orin]

You guys are kidding about the brown mantids growing faster, right?

 

[Domanating]

You guys are kidding about the brown mantids growing faster, right?

Looks like no one dared to comment after your post :shifty:

 

[Rick]

They don't. But I'd love to see someone design a real experiment to test that.