Mantis keeping

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16.12.2008 18:22, Боря

I don't have such an example about mantises, but I will say about locusts (Schistocerca gregaria), they are generally related. Five larvae normally grew to adult size under incandescent light, but did not mate, and about a month after the imaginal molt, they began to die. When there were only two left, I bought 'Sera Terra UV'. After two days of radiation exposure, about 2 hours a day, they mated. The unhealthy-looking redness that had developed on the male's pronotum also disappeared. The female laid eggs, totaling three clutches, and the older offspring are now predimago. She died about a week ago, and the male, who was elated in mid-August, is still alive today (!).
It seems to me that if the praying mantises are irradiated with u/f at the imago stage, then perhaps they will be able to leave offspring.

16.12.2008 22:43, Мих

Yeah.. Today the female faded. I look at your photo and I understand that mine definitely have problems. (Ultraviolet: every other day the lamp ReptiGlo 10, 13 V. Cartridge box.)
But the wings are almost not deployed at all! They stick out like rags.
From this the question arises: will these wings(females) prevent the male from jumping on the female? Shouldn't they be cut off altogether after drying? I tried to level them surgically until they were dry, but the result didn't get any better. So far, they do not interfere with movement. The male is "alert and cheerful".
Humidity, following the instructions, increased. It doesn't do much good. There was still a male and a not quite healthy female. Shedding any minute now. Increased the radiation exposure by 15 minutes. (imago sats too) What else can I do?
Also : Please, someone smart, tell me exactly about the lamp. how much to irradiate CONCRETELY. my lama?

Pictures:

IMG_04_94.jpg — (59.85к)

IMG_04_95.jpg — (85.19к)

17.12.2008 7:22, DmitryBurkow

Yeah. This is really a problem... Did they shed already with increased humidity? I thought yours were about as good as mine, but mine were lucky. Now I'm thinking - in a week's time, another male will be molting somewhere, and in another week a female will be molting. And 3 more pieces that came out of the winter camp on the way, will be in a month. Perhaps it's the excess humidity, on the contrary? Although for me, when they were shedding, the humidity tended to zero. Your male will live without problems, but the female will still have to trim her wings (but not now, but when it becomes obvious that they are interfering).
In principle, the male is not so sorry - I'll try to bring my own to zero humidity with silica gel when molting, what if excessive moisture interferes? Well, as I did not use UV, I will not do it. Let's see how it ends.

17.12.2008 19:33, Боря

How many hours a day do they need?

I cover about an hour in the morning and 1-2 hours in the evening. The minimum time at which the effect will occur, I think, is from half an hour a day.

They live in plastic cups, I constantly irradiate them with UV directly through the walls of the cup for 15 minutes.

UV light does not pass through either plastic or glass. Only direct light without any obstacles. If your cups are covered with a net, you can hang a lamp on top so that the light passes through the cells.

To humidity, as far as I think, empuses are not demanding. Small L3-4s were successfully shedding about fifteen centimeters from the battery, and during lighting. With age, the demand for humidity in mantises decreases.

...I'll try to bring my own molt to zero humidity with silica gel at all, what if excessive moisture interferes?

Humidity is already almost zero when the central heating is turned on. In any case, it is lower than in nature in the evening, at night or in the morning, when mantises most often molt. It is even believed that such dry air is harmful to humans, so humidifiers were invented.

..Question: will these wings(females) prevent the male from jumping on the female? Shouldn't they be cut off altogether after drying?

When mating, mantises are guided, in addition to smell, visually. Therefore, it is desirable that the female looks more like an imago, and not a larva, which it will look like if the wings are completely cut off. In my opinion, they will hardly interfere with mating; males can sit not on the middle line, but slightly to the side. I think that you can leave them in this form.

This post was edited by Boris - 12/17/2008 19: 39

Likes: 2

29.12.2008 10:17, DmitryBurkow

So, I report. A male empusa was born last night. Given the sad experience of previous molts, both for me and for others, I decided to go the other way - to reduce humidity.
The insect lived in a wooden shelf behind the glass, among the dried grass. Lighting: two 15W energy-saving lamps are also in the shelf. Additional moisture was absorbed by photo paper decorations and cardboard artificial thickets. There was no humidification at all, the heating in the apartment is working, the air is so dry that it is even felt. In addition, a computer is available around the clock in the room. I could not measure the humidity, because there is nothing. The temperature at night was 23 degrees. Empusa did not receive any UV radiation during her entire life.
The molt was excellent, the wings were fully spread out and folded on the back. There is only a very slight skew of the right elytra, which is why they are folded a little sideways. I don't think it will even hurt to fly. Photos will be available later. In the near future, another female empusa will take wing, I will leave the same conditions.

This post was edited by DmitryBurkow - 12/29/2008 10: 20

26.01.2009 12:56, DmitryBurkow

Well... Mine are alive. Imagos live together, the female male has already chewed everything, but yesterday she ate off her leg. But I hope he did his job. I have evicted them from the warm shelf so far (there are terrorists there), but they don't care. Two more larvae "broke through" wintering, began to hunt actively. I think in a month there will also be imagos (just a couple). They shed less often than whales, and L4 larvae tend to overwinter. Because of these wintering grounds, I got a spread of several months, although all hatched at the same time (the first 2 males did not overwinter at all, the second pair wintered for about a month, and now another pair with a wintering period of 2.5 months).

No one in St. Petersburg has male cows? Or maybe someone needs females? And then I have 9 females and one male =)