Breeding Mantis
As we mentioned at the beginning Mantis sexes can be differentiated by the number of segments on their thorax, these are most easily observed by looking at their undersides. There are 8 segments on the male and 6 on the female. For three days prior to introducing a male to the females tank both should be given as much food as they can eat, this will give the best chance of mating before the female eats the male for dinner and this feeding should continue until the female has been mated. As soon as mating has occurred (or the female begins to swell if you missed it) the male should be removed to prevent him from being eaten.
At this point you should remove their permanent 'trees' and replace them with smaller individual ones in readiness for the deposition of egg cases.
Over the next 1 to 14 days the female Mantis will begin to swell as she prepares to deposit her eggs in an ootheca. The ootheca is made up of a liquid substance which the female whips up in to a foam, she will deposit her eggs in this foam which will quickly harden in to something which resembles polystyrene. Typically the female Mantis will deposit between 3 and 10 ootheca each containing up to 300 eggs depending on species and size of the female. She will deposit the ootheca on the temporary sticks and twigs you provided.
The permanent 'tree' can now be reintroduced
Ootheca Care
The newly deposited ootheca can remain in the main tank for around 3 months or until the first signs of hatching can be seen, this can be between 3 and 6 months depending on species. Once the eggs begin hatching the stick that they are attached to should be removed from the main tank and placed in to a separate tank, this will prevent the hatchlings from being eaten. This hatchling tank can for convenience be kept inside the main tank provided it has a secure mesh lid. If the egg case has been deposited close to the ground you may have to elevate them slightly as the newly hatched babies will appear on short (4 to 6 cm) silken threads.
Once hatched the baby Mantis should be fed on the smallest of insects like fruit flies (wingless type), greenflies, small house flies etc until they are large enough to tackle larger prey. At this early stage they will eat as many small insects as you can provide but no harm will come if they are short of food for a couple of days. If the tank is overcrowded they will quickly begin to eat each other and so you may want to divide them in to smaller batches in their own tanks.
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Here we have an ootheca of the African Mantis (Sphodromantis centralis) that has been deposited on an Cattleya orchid cane.
This is one of the largest mantis species and is an impressive 4 inches long with a stocky build - and an appetite to match!
This ootheca has been removed from the cane and placed in to a small ventilated container and kept at around 24C with humidity at around 60% |
Once the ootheca begins hatching and the hundreds of tiny mantis emerge you have two avenues you could take.
Simple Rearing
Firstly you could put the whole batch in to a netting cage with a tub of fruit flies and spray them lightly one a day with clean water. This is the easiest way to deal with hundreds of baby mantis.
This is a tropical greenhouse and the temperature is around 22°C during the day and drops to about 16°C - 17°C at night with a humidity level of around 70%.
If you can't keep the young insects this warm in your greenhouse then you should keep them indoors in a tank or one of these large net cages.
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10 April
There are around two hundred hatchlings from this ootheca and they have all been transferred in to a large black netting cage, this should give them enough space to avoid each other! |
A tub of live fruit flies has also been introduced in to the cage with them so they have an immediate food source other than themselves.
You should expect heavy losses at this stage, the reason that so many are produced from an egg case is that so many will die. Realistically you can expect a 15% - 25% survival rate.
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Baby mantis are tiny at around 5mm in length or smaller! |
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28 April
The mantis will grow quickly provided there is ample food.
The netting gives an excellent foothold for when the mantis shed their skins. |
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These mantis are just 18 days old and have already shed their skins twice and are now around 1.25cm long.
Larger curly wing flies have now been introduced to the mantis cage.
They will soon need to be split in to individual containers as they are easily big enough to eat each other!
You can purchase live food from our other site Global
Live Food (UK & EU only) |
Advanced Rearing
The second way of dealing with your baby mantis is to place them in to individual containers from the start. I use polystyrene cups with ventilated lids. This is another Sphodromantis centralis ootheca that hatched the same day and contained just over 300 nymphs!
10 April
Each cup has a piece of paper kitchen towel running from the inside bottom of the cup right over the rim, this paper has to be sprayed with clean water every day to keep up the humidity levels. Make sure not to leave any 'puddles' of water in the bottom of the cup as the mantis easily drown at this size.
As well as a daily spraying they will need feeding, in each cup I place three or four flightless fruit flies. |
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The cups are kept on racks and at a temperature of 25C. This is a very time consuming process and takes several hours each day to finish. |
Here is a sequence of the skins produced from the first three moults, note the ever increasing skin sizes. |
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The corresponding first and second nymphs are below, the first size nymphs are always dark brown but they turn greener as they get older.
28th April
The nymphs have to date been fed on flightless fruit flies but are now large enough to feed on larger prey, I like the curly wing flies for this and feed two flies per nymph per day.
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The nymphs are now around 1.25cm long and growing fast! |
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15 June
Nymphs now are around 2.5cm long and are feeding on small/medium sized brown crickets, one is taken each day. |
You can purchase live food from our other site Global
Live Food (UK & EU only)
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