Orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus)
I was a little bit hesitated before purchasing the orchid mantises from the forum.
First, I had already kept this specie last year ( no offspring produced, all were sold as I mentioned in my previous thread) and I thought I have got pretty enough information about orchids.
Second issue was I could have grab some ootheccas from my friends in China and bring them to the states or I could wait till them to ship me the ooths.
Also it will be at high risk to keep young nymphs as the guy on the mantidforum was selling L1 nymph, which was easily to get dehydrate and die instantly during shipping.
I convinced myself at the end and received them perfectly. As I pointed out, L1 nymphs are very sensitive to the environment(humidity and temperature). In the wild, orchid mantis(Hymenopus coronatus)can be found in rain forest of South Asia. The temperature of the habitat rarely exceed 30C (86F), in the night it will drop to as low as 18C （64F）， the humidity is usually around 70% to 95%. Therefore a regular mist is very necessary. The reason why it is risky to keep L1 nymphs in the winter is that in order to maintain the humidity and temperature, it will be very likely that you lost ventilation (another very important factor for keeping mantis).
According to my experience, although orchid mantises live in very wet surrounding, however it is not necessary to keep their containers too wet because that will increase the chance of infection. All we have to do is make sure the orchid babies do not get dehydrated——drink enough water daily. The nymphs are very easy to lost water so make sure let them drink at least once a day. This can be done by misting them once or twice a day( make sure the water drops evaporate completely in 1 hour).
For the food, it is better to choose flying insects such as moths, flies and fruit flies. The common food that pet stores offer are crickets and mealworms, which contain high level cholesterol and fat that are very harmful to orchid mantis. The flying insect carry less fat and cholesterol but high level protein, carbohydrate and other nutrient. Therefore it is the best option to offer your mantis fly insects, they can be purchased from online store (pupae,larva, fruit fly culture).
Seems like i have been talking general information too much.
I received 6 nymphs on Dec 4th and now there are only 4 left due to my fault. I kept the container too hot ( over 30C) so I lost 2 of them, that was a bit frustrating since I had never lost a single orchid until this time. Nevertheless, this case is still a very good lecture for me ( it's ok to keep them cool but do not ever over heat them!). I took care very carefully with the rest 4 orchid and hopefully I could get at least one pair in the end. I have tried several time to sex L1 nymphs though it is very unlikely to observe the difference of their genitals. I could see a little but still, it is only assumption :(, I was not sure the difference occurs upon genders of individuals.
After they turn to L2 stage, they are much more easy to take care of .Their body and restore more water thus I dont have to concern their dehydration. I have 3 nymphs molted to L2 on Dec 20 and the last one molted on Dec 23. I tried some macro shots on their abdomen and finally I can differentiate their genders :)
Female abdomen
Male abdomen
Here are some shots :D
