Inbreeding mantids

silver_arctic1

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
11
Does inbreeding truly have negative effects on the hatchlings? I've read that mantids can be inbred but need to introduced to different genes after a couple times. And others have told me that inbreeding has no effect on the mantids. Can someone clarify this for me?

Thanks,
Evan
 

Sheldy

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 1, 2004
Messages
109
Hey there Evan

Im not to sure about this because I always try to mix up the gene pools i have, but I have been told that unlike us, insects are quite different and initially inbreeding wont make any difference. This is because with the rate of an insects life and breeding cylce, theyre likely to be localised to quite a small area.
However they will eventually need to get some new input into their genepool, ive been told that some speices can go up to 10 generations of inbreeding, before there are any deffinate signs of inbreeding.
But you know what they say....
....better to be safe than sorry....
 

Jesse607

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
715
Many insects have been inbred for literally hundreds of generations without showing any ill effects, most of the problems blamed on inbreeding are actually caused by artificial selection by humans(i.e. we can only catch the slowest flies, so we breed those, and after many generations only poor flying weak flies exist in the culture). The prevalent attitude is that it is better safe than sorry, and not to inbreed too much, but it has not been scientifically proven that inbreeding causes detrimental effects in most insects. I'm sure it affects some groups of insects more than others.
 
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