Long awaited violins

[Sheldy]

After a long time trying to raise then breed my violin mantids, I finnaly have something to show for it.
Only a few days after sending my only two 100% fertile ooths to a friend, a so called "infertile" one hatched! WOW! I'm so happy!
So all is well, only got 10, but still im so pleased with myself. Anyway, Sunday night comes and im trying to avoid some work, so im looking at my violin tank, and guess what!?! another "infertile" ooth hatched. This time i got about 20, and im thinking when is my luck gunna dry up? Sadly a paradoxa did die, which bothered me a little but hey, if he wasnteating the food i was giving, whats to be expected?
So im thinking how can it get any better than this, then yesterday another ooth hatched! Only 3 this time, annoying but great none the less. So as you can imagine im absolutly thrilled with this weeks events.
However thats not all! Last nights hatch continued today, and is still going on but at the moment i have another 10.
As you all can imagine, i am absolutly thrilled with this and had to tell some people who might actually care. It's all come together over the last 5 days and has made all the effort and hard work i have put into these unique little mantids worth while!

Thanks for listening!

 

[Jesse607]

Why were they supposed to be "infertile"? Regardless, congrats with the success!

 

[thedreadedone]

lets see some pics please

 

[Sheldy]

As you know mantids take a damn long time to do their business, so i could assume that they'd never done their business, becasue of 2 factors: Violins mate primarily in the morning and the evening - dusk and dawn, and usually it takes about 8 hours, thus i was pretty certain they had never mated as even after a day out, at college/uni they would still being going... but i kept the ooths around just incase! Lucky me!
Will get some pictures ASAP, ill probably have to wait a little while though, until i can use my friends camera, wont matter too much, as it means i can get some nice images of my orchids which should (finnaly) be coming on thursday.
For now ill just post some images of my adult violins:

 

[ghost_tomb]

i've been thinking of getting some of these since they look fantastic, but since their meant to be so passive when it comes to hunting that they can die of malnutrition.


How hard is it to get them to feed?

where do you live in the uk?

 

[Sheldy]

Yes Violins are annoying, and yes sometimes they are overly pasive, but theyre great regardless. As for feeding it all comes down to routine. They will happily take flies,and if starved will take crickets. However if they relly on crickets too much it can be fatal. The best thing to do is to buy a 1/4 pint of maggots every 10 days or so, keep them warm, but not in the enclosue (incase it is too hot and they die) until you see the first fly hatch. Put the flies into thetank, thin 24 lots will hatch out, and you need to feed them, sothe best bet is to give them a container with cotten wool in it, covered with honey. They love this, and it makes them better for the violins + they will then live much longer, and less food will be wasted.
As for my location, I live down in Yeovil.

 

[calestus]

Those are some neat looking mantids. Congrats on the hatch out.

 

[ghost_tomb]

Since my pet mantis has recently laid an egg case(WHOOOT) i've done some reading and apparantly ALL egg cases are fertile, if the mantis hasn't been mated all of the babies that hatch are female.

 

[Sheldy]

Got some iamges of my violin hatchlings - http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?p=331661#post331661

Ghost Tomb, im sorry to say, but that just isnt true. Occasionally mantids will asexually reproduce. For example, my friend gave me a call tonight to tell me that his female hierodula grandis asexually reproduced. Unfortunatly, he got only one nymph from the hatch.

There is always a possiblilty of it happening, but dont get your hopes up.

 

[Jesse607]

Since my pet mantis has recently laid an egg case(WHOOOT) i've done some reading and apparantly ALL egg cases are fertile, if the mantis hasn't been mated all of the babies that hatch are female.

This simply is not true, you were given very inaccurate information. All mantids lay oothecae regardless of whether they have mated, but ~99.99% of them(unfertile) will produce no nymphs (accept Brunneria borrealis, they are the only mantids known to exclusively reproduce parthenogenically).

 

[Geoff_K]

Very nice .... I like this mantis the best of them all .. sleek looking .. someday i may get lucky and locate an ooth for sale so that i can have my own colony.

 

[nepenthes]

Nice mantids!