Today, the first of five egg cases hatched. I guess they started out of their confinement sometime between 10 and 1 pm. They did not completely finish emerging until about 4 or 5. The Green Snake, "Null", has eaten over 15 of these little mantises. I am hoping that my adding a lot more foliage will delay the ravenous reptile's onslaught. There are ground crickets breeding in the moss and under the sponge, I think. That should provide the snake, and the mantises, with a supply of baby crickets to eat. At last count, there were still over 30 baby mantises visible in the cage. That is not so many, but if 30 live from each case, then there will still be 150 in the cage, and hopefully these will survive until 1st shed. After this critical 1st shed, I have found, the mantises are much easier to raise. Partly this is because it is easier to find them food, since they are noticeably larger after even just the 1st shed. I sprayed the cage with a significant, hopefully not excessive, mist of water. More to come tomorrow.
Nothing new happened today. I sprayed the cage. The snake has stopped eating mantises so quickly. I still counted over 25 in the cage tonight. I am hoping a new case will hatch soon. Hopefully just as the first case's mantises are shedding. That would provide food for the larger mantises! I have noticed that mantises don't get hungry until a day or two after they shed. If the current mantises don't start eating the gnats and baby crickets (or each other!) in the terrarium now, they will start to die of hunger tomorrow. More tomorrow!
Today another eggcase hatched. I think that it had many more eggs that successfully hatcheed than the last. There are easily 150 visible mantises in the cage now, and probably 50 to 100 more hiding in the brush. They are all very thirsty, and I keep spraying them with water. The snake chases them around, but is not interested in eating them. I suppose he is just keeping in shape. The roach and millipede are doing well. I fed them some carrot yesterday, and already it is eaten. There is a water dish in the cage with a wide wire mesh over it (so the roach does not fall in and drown). A number of baby mantises have already met with a watery death in that bowl. None of the adult crickets I put in the cage a week ago seem to be alive, but my wife tells me she has seen some baby crickets in there. I hope they are breeding, but worry that it is not consistently moist enough in the moss for the eggs to survive. I am guessing that the other three cases will hatch over the next three days. If so, there will be about 400-600 mantises running around in there just as the first bunch are shedding. If so, I will not have to worry as much about feeding them for a while. However, I have found a supply of gnats and wood mites that might work as food. I also am reminded of an occasion where a pre-1st shed mantis of mine attacked and ATE a post-1st shed mantis. Now, there is one FIESTY little guy! More tomorrow.
Nothing much happened today. No eggs hatched, no noticeable change in the mantis population. Everything is going fine. I may have been somewhat hasty about my prediction that the remaining cases will hatch by day 6. We are approaching shedding territory in the next couple of days for day 1 mantises.
Today, no egg cases hatched, BUT, good news: I found a huge supply of aphids in the yard. I probably collected 500 little aphids today, including winged ones, which I believe are males, and which move around more than the unwinged ones. Already, I've witnessed 5 mantises eating them (I put the aphids in 10 minutes ago). I left a good number of aphids still in the yard so that I can collect them without depleting the yard population. I am facing a problem in the terrarium: no living plants. The aphids will not live more than a few days because only the plants that went into the terrarium with them are there for food. And they will die quickly. I am considering turning a smaller aquarium I have into a dirt-floored, living-planted terrarium for 1st shed mantises. It is the transfer from one cage to another I worry about. Every time I open the terrarium, 5-10 mantises escape. Sure, there are still over 100 in there, and sure, I still have 3 egg cases to hatch, but... I'm greedy, I suppose. I want to keep as many mantises as I possibly can. I put two ambitious escapees on my bonsai tree, and hope they like it enough to stay put. But at their age, it is doubtful they will. I added 3 ladybugs to the collection, and they have been mating.
I had a sixth eggcase in a seperate terrarium, and it hatched today. Also, I discovered an old document recording the shedding dates of mantises I had about 4 years ago. It seems my prediction (above) about the shedding times of these mantises I now have was way off. The record I found suggested that the first shed would occur *15 days* after birth, and the second shed was *12* days after that. I don't remember it being that long! At this rate, given that they shed about 7 times before adulthood, they won't be adults until late August, which is unusual in these parts (I caught an adult mantis in Amherst last July). Some statistics I failed to mention earlier: size at birth: 3/4 cm, color: dull brown/dusty green, size at 3 days: 1cm. Bodies are translucent, and you can see food in them after they've eaten. The newest mantises are now living in a much smaller terrarium by themselves. One nice thing: this terrarium has a dirt floor, with moss and hopefully living weeds and such. I intend to 'breed' aphids in this cage for mantis food, keep the plants (oh, and earthworms) alive for the aphids and for the mantises' enjoyment.
Not much happened today. I can see that the terrarium population is dwindling: I think about 75 mantises still are running around in there. They are also starting to eat each other: I've seen about 3 or 4 munching on mantises. I plan to go aphid collecting again tomorrow. That should help keep some of them satisfied and not too concerned to go after other mantises. My goal is to keep at least 50 or so, between the two terrariums, alive until the first shed. If all goes ideally, there would be a fresh supply of mantises hatching then, and they would provide food, and a second line of possible shedders, to the cage and the already larger mantises. I think that after the second shed, they are large enough to eat lacewings and crane flies, and that would remove the necessity for hunting aphids (which is not the most fun thing in the world to do). Hopefully, I'll have pictures in short order.
Today my wife and I went aphid collecting. I am very worried about the mantises in the larger terrarium: now there are around 50. I think that the snake is doing them in too quickly. I will have to put some into a separate cage. That will make 3. The ones that have survived are looking rather robust.
I have set aside a third cage to put some larger little mantises in. I was encouraged about leaving them in the big cage with the snake when I saw the snake get near one to attack, and the mantis actually attacked the snake (grabbed at his tongue) and _scared the snake away_! I was impressed. I think the first shed mantises will practically be able to take care of themselves. However, I am sad that there are still three eggcases that have not hatched. I am thinking of peeling back a layer of eggs to see if they are just late, or if they are 'duds'. More tomorrow.
Today I took about 10 mantises from the large terrarium and put them in a separate container. I suspect that some will eat each other, and then about 5 or so will shed very soon now. They are big and fat! Now, I also took off the first layer of eggs of one of the yet unhatched egg cases to show her what it looked like and also to see if the egg cases which still have not hatched are 'duds' (ie. hatched before shipping or dried up). The one I opened was NOT a dud: the mantises were wriggling around in there. The babies were surprisingly undeveloped: I estimate at least another 3-5 days before it hatches. The little terrarium still has about 75 mantises in it, and they are getting big and fat too: they demolished a branch of aphids and have begun eating each other in earnest. I will have to go hunting tomorrow in my copious free time. Soon I will begin collecting smaller containers to put individual mantises in. It is fun to raise them individually after they attain 1st or 2nd shed.
As if to punctuate my poor predictions of the recent past, the eggcase that I just opened up to show the Wife, that I wrote would hatch in 3-5 days, hatched today. Now, once again, the larger terrarium is full of little hopping mantises. The smaller terrarium has only about 10 really fat mantises left, so I put the 8 mantises from the smaller bowl into the terrarium. Within about a week, we should see some shedding activity, and then I'll start putting one or two mantises in medium sized cages and feed them insects other than mantises on a regular basis (though I will have quite a supply of little mantises from the next eggcases).
The closer the older mantises get to their first shed, the greener they get. They are starting to look too big for their skins. They are getting fat and don't hop as much. Now, they take the more dignified mode of travel: walking. However, if anyone has ever seen how an adult mantis flies, they will realize that the trend toward dignity in travel does not continue into full adulthood. Flying mantises are not terribly graceful. Although, as I mention in the text on the mantis homepage, they can do amazing downward spirals to avoid bats.
Today another eggcase hatched. At around 10am I got up and I caught them in the act of wriggling out of their first skins. About 20 were hanging upside down still, wriggling to push their heads out of their skins. They are still doing that now as I write. They are connected to the eggcase by a single thread, and shed the skin that is connected still. Once they are out of this skin, they crawl usually back on top of the eggcase, and then to the top of the cage. I have to go buy milk. Until tomorrow. Wait. One mantis has shed today. I suspect it is the only survivor of the first hatched eggcase. In his/her honor, I set up a brand new cage with some little food insects all for him/her. No mantis competition, and lots of space. It is a converted hamster cage, which really works quite nicely. The real advantage is the little door, placed in the center of the top of the 'terrarium', which allows you to open the top without opening the WHOLE top. Very nice. His/her guests include 3 glowing fireflies.
As you can see, I can't keep up with doing this every day. However, since it must get boring to read drivel, I am sure you will understand if I only write when something interesting happens, rather than writing so much that it all sounds like filler. At this time, I have 3 or 4 mantises that have survived 1st shed, and about 5 more that are soon to shed. These 1st shedders have for the most part their own cages, and have been fed well. They look robust and promising. There are about 40 or 50 still alive in the big terrarium, and tomorrow I plan to separate these too into their own cages, in 2s or 3s, so that I can boast in the end at least 8 or 10 full grown mantises (a record for me). The snake, it goes without saying, is well fed. There is still one eggcase that has not hatched inside, but I am fairly sure it won't now. I suspect it is 'dead'. I may check tonight to make sure. The roach is fine, the millipede is fine, the cages are taking on a very interesting and cool look. The big terrarium looks like a little piece of jungle. However, I think that when there are few enough mantises in that big terrarium, I am going to 'upgrade' it, so that it has a dirt bottom with living plants. Then, I will put mantises that are big enough to fend for themselves in with the roach and the millipede and the snake, and put enough food in so that the mantises will leave each other alone. Not likely, you say. True. However, if I put enough plants and brush in there, and few enough mantises, I can at least make it less likely that they will find each other. The first shed mantises are about twice as big as just hatched ones, or about 1.5 - 2 cm. They are lighter brown or greener, and their heads seem to have noticeably grown relative to their bodies. The babies have teensy heads, and almost look non-mantis-like. The first shedders look very mantis like, with big eyes and swiveling heads. They jump less, they move more slowly.
Two mantids today shed for the second time. Now they are getting big enough to eat flies and lacewings and such. There are only 7 mantises left, but they all seem quite healthy and promising. Of course, the snake, millipede and roach are all dandy. The newly shedded mantises are about 1 1/4 inches long -- that's about 3cm for the non-UnitedStates contingent. Their heads now are quite prominent and visible: you can begin to see detail in their eyes. The eyes are blue and green now, depending on the time of day, not brown looking as they are when they were 1 day old. Insect eyesight is a very interesting topic in itself. My current understanding is this (and I am probably inaccurate and vague): each facet of a normal insect eye has a cone-like light-sensitive receptor. The facets are all faced in slightly different directions (in the case of a mantis, this comprises very roughly 70 to 80,000 degrees of 129,600 degrees (3060X360)of 3-d space; that's a great deal more than human eyesight can scan at once!). The facets are very sensitive, individually, to changes in the amount of light they detect. What this means for insect eyesight is this: they cannot see very clear images (the resolution of the images is very low: one 'pixel' per facet for about 400 facets in the case of a mantis). However, they can detect movement very well (because a: they scan a great deal of space and b: a change in the amount of light that 'moves' ie. that goes from facet to _neighboring_ facet, is easily detectable by sensitive facets that cover enough small ranges of space). I am eager to stand corrected by experts. I hope the email comes pouring in! :)
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