Rest in Peace Reagan

Went to feed the mantis this evening and found Reagan dead on the bottom of her enclosure. Not sure what happened to her, she seemed fine, only gave me the one ootheca and then died. The only one I have left now is Kennedy and she's unmated, really hoping I get lucky enough to find a male.

Picture update

Some pics I took today of Reagan and Kennedy and also of Reagan's first ootheca.

Update

Yesterday, my last male, Madison died. He never would mate with Kennedy (or Reagan for that matter) for what ever reason so Kennedy remains unmated. Reagan laid her very first ooth this evening having mated for the first time Sept 19 with Nixon.  Nixon mated with her 3 times before he was eaten. I will get pics of the ooth tomorrow, I am waiting for it to  harden before messing with it.

Oh no Nixon lost his head! Reagan's getting fat.

I mated Reagan and Nixon one last time on 9/24/2014 and she ate his head! 3rd time was the charm I guess and she is FINALLY starting to get fat. I attempted to mate Kennedy and Madison today but he  tried and tried for about 30 mins and she was just not having it. She wasn't violent nor did she try to get him off her back, but lets just say she wasn't receptive either. So I took him out and we will try again later today or maybe tomorrow. Here are some pics of Reagan and her growing tummy that I took today.

Mating update

I went ahead and mated Nixon and Reagan again last night. 6 hours. He still has his head as she ate well before and during mating. I put him back in his habitat and will see if she starts getting fat and ready to lay an ooth soon. Kennedy and Madison should be ready this next weekend, and if Reagan isn't showing signs of being fat by then I'll mate her again as well. Reagan looks maybe a little fatter but its hard to tell if she is getting full of eggs yet. I'll get some pics as soon as I can, have a busy day today and tomorrow.

So Nixon and Reagan mated for 5 and a half hours last night and when he was done I took him and put him back in his habitat. She had eaten right before and during mating so I think that saved him his head. I am currently mating them again, as I am not sure if the first one was successful or not and I figured twice can't hurt. Will update when there is more to share about this mating.

Mating day for one of our pairs

Reagan (female) is mating with Nixon(male) As I write they have been at it just about 4 and a half hours. I am going to try to feed her in a bit and also keep an eye on them and try to get him out before she eats him, that way I can mate them again later. A second mating isn't required but I like to for good measure. Until last year I never had a boy get eaten so crossing my fingers I can save Nixon for at least one more shot at this.

When I put him with her, she had just eaten. He went right up to her face and she attacked him. I had to shake their container to keep her from killing him before he had a chance to mate. I finally got him behind her and it took a few seconds and he was up on the stick and then hooked on her.

Will update tomorrow on their progress and will be updating as she begins to lay ooths so keep an eye on the blog the next few days or so.

On 9-6-14 Nixon molted into a full grown male! I don't have pics of him taken yet but I will get some soon. Today, Kennedy molted she wings and they didn't lay flat when she molted and are all crinkled up, this shouldn't hurt her health wise and hopefully she will have one more molt to fix them

. I took some pics of her today I am sharing.

Rest in Peace Reagan

Reagan died trying to molt. Not sure what happened, moisture was good, she didn't fall and she had a great place to hang for it. Will be in search of a new female soon.

Just went to check on Reagan she is attempting to molt, I will keep you updated. I have never had one act so strangely before molting so not sure what is up. Maybe she just needed to molt, and will be better tomorrow. She still seems extremely weak as she is hanging from her stick attempting to get out of her old skin. Moisture and humidity are good/high so hopefully that helps.

Madison molted on the 19th. Sorry I haven't been posting but have had a stomach bug. Also, Reagan appears to be sick. At first I thought she was just not eating because she was getting ready to molt, but no molt yet and she appears to be weak. She falls and will lay on the bottom of her tank or just hang motionless and stiff on her stick. She has the  look of a mantis that they get before they die, so she might not make it. My experience is I have never lost a young mantis, only lost them of old age so not sure what is wrong with her. I have kept her tank misted to encourage molting and today I got her to nibble on some fruit, hoping it would pep her up a bit, but so far no luck. We shall see what happens. Everyone else is doing great, when I am feeling a bit better I will take some more pics, still need to share the new Kennedy with you all.

Changes

I'll post new pictures soon but wanted to let everyone know about a change we made. Today I released Kennedy the male that molted just a few days ago. He has been replaced with a female! Found her today, and she certainly looks female. I wanted to keep our numbers down to 4, because we just don't have the time or room for more than 4. So now I believe we have two females, Reagan and Kennedy and two males Nixon and Madison. I am excited to have two females to lay eggs and will be on the look out after mating them once for another other males to take in to use just for mating purposes.  One mating will get the job done, but I have found sometimes double mating them a week or two apart is a good thing too.

Kennedy molted

Well we have another sub-adult in the house! Kennedy molted last night. If timing works out like it did with the last molt in about 4 more days Reagan should molt. Keeping an eye on things, all 4 are eating and doing well.

Nixon molted and has pretty wing buds!

Mr. Nixon molted over night last night, woke up to find him much bigger and with big wing buds, probably just one more molt left for him and he will be an adult! Will need to upgrade his housing soon and the rest of the bunch too so they don't go flying out every time I feed them. Need something that has a feeder hole in it.

Reagan Molted and Sexing mantis

Reagan molted! She is beautiful. My pictures don't do her justice, she has little black speckles on her back that make her super pretty. Yes, I said she. That brings me to my next topic. Sexing (no not sexTing that is another subject all together lol) mantids.

The basic rule is females have 6 abdominal segments while males have 8. The final segment of the female is much larger than the others while the male has several small segments towards the end of the abdomen. You can also tell by the shape. A male is kind of stick shaped, one length all the way down pretty much. Females have a fat wide bottom. When they get their wings a males will be longer than the body and they fly about. Females have wings shorter than their whole body and they typically don't fly a lot, because they are usually too fat. Counting segments on baby nymph mantis are hard so I wasn't sure what we had. I am still not 100% certain, but....

Reagan appears to be female and I am pretty sure of that, but if I can't find one I'll mate all 3 with Reagan.based off segments and also the fact she is fat and wide now. I am almost 100% sure the 3 others are male. I will be on the look out for another female, to increase my changes of a higher number of fertile eggs
 Again sexing them is kind of hard at this stage, I haven't ever had this much trouble! I must be out of practice. We will see as they continue to molt, each should have at least one more molt. Possibly two. Will have to go look at pics in detail, but a few have wing buds now which means they should get their wings next molt. 

Madison Molted

Madison molted today!  Here are a few pics. Everything is else going well. All eating and having fun and growing well.

Kennedy molted

Kennedy molted late last night or early this morning. Here are a few pics of the bigger and better Kennedy. Again a pic in my hand so you can compare size a little bit, I wish I could get them to stand still on a ruler! HA HA!  Also I have noticed every time I go to take a picture these little stinkers look away, at least it feels like that.

Talked to the boy across the street that also has a mantis from our yard. He named it Jinx or Jinks not sure how he is spelling it, and not Michelle as I first thought. He said his has molted once already. I'll have to get him to bring his over so I can get some pictures to share.

PICTURES!!!!

Took a few more pictures, holding them in my hands for size reference. Reagan ran up my arm, down my back up my neck before Ella finally caught her! It was interesting to say the least.