TylerHoorn
Active member
I had a New Zealand mantis ooth hatch and after two days I was able to take a video of one of them crawling back up to the ooth to munch on some of the limbs the other nymphs had lost while hatching! A second nymph came over and joined him in the feast. I thought it was interesting, and also note that one nymph did not try to grab a live mantis, miss and then eat the dead limb on accident, each of the two nymphs approached the ooth at a different time and repeated the behavior. Has anyone else experienced this with any other species and is it common?
Nearly all ooths I've hatched had some form of that behavior going on, no matter the various species. Within 24 hours of hatching nymphs are ready to eat, and will do so on each other if need be. Likely the various limbs were moved slightly by a breeze, the live mantises movements on the ooth, or whatever and that trigger them to eat it as it was easy prey.
