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mantis log
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Oxypilus distinctus
BOXER MANTIS
  
Special notes: This species is an interesting one. The boxer mantis, when disturbed, extends its oversized forearms out and inwards, like it is boxing. The inside of the forearm is a red and orange coloration. The nymphs are EXTREMELY energetic and run all over the place! They are currently the most energetic mantis I own, even more runny than the gambians and the ants. Be careful, you can easily lose one since they are so small and active. They must be started out with D. melanogaster, and I have heard that they don't start d. hydei until L3 or L4.
2.24.08 Nothing new - I paired up future partners of males and females according to size since some are more ahead than others. So far the pair I have that is closest to maturity are a subadult female and a subsubadult male.
2.10.08 I haven't updated this log in a while. So far, I have 9 females (one crippled), 8 males, and 2 unsexed. The females seem to mature faster than the males, so now I have to slow them down otherwise they may die before the males reach adult. They all are putting on some size, I think I may have a subadult female as well.
12.4.07 Some cannibalism has been happening in one of the two containers. The other is fine and I see no cannibalism. This container first was found with a nymph head. Tonight I found a half-eaten L2. o_O The smaller L1's seemed to have eaten its abdomen...
Some of these little guys have finally started to molt, I have currently 2 L2's not including the half eaten one. And yesterday, the remaining two ooths hatched. One seems to have hatched halfway, as the cracks don't go all the way down the length of the ooth.
11.20.07 The second O. distinctus ooth hatched 11 nymphs, leaving me with two more incubating ooths...
11.20.07 Yen told me that these mantids don't start eating until the third day after hatching from their ooth. Unfortunately, it's going to take 8-9 days for me to get my d. melanogaster because buyfruitflies.com is taking off for the Thanksgiving holiday... ugh... my order is being shipped 6 days from now, and from there it'll take 2-3 days to actually arrive at my doorstep. I guess I can compromise with small bugs outside?
11.19.07 SQUEE! One of the ooths hatched when I checked on it this afternoon. :) I have now a total of five nymphs. Not many, but I still have three ooths to go. Maybe there will be some late hatchers in this ooth also. The nymphs are EXTREMELY small, much smaller than I anticipated... I'll probably have to purchase some D. melanogaster now, but maybe I can find some small insects outside. Oxypilus are extremely entertaining to watch and very fidgety. The pictures I took aren't that great because they wouldn't stay still!
11.09.07 I ordered three ootheca of this species from Drizzt. They arrived while I was on my trip. They are extremely small, about 1/4 the size of a pinky nail. Each ootheca only bears about 20-30 nymphs. I recieved four of them, plus an extra Pseudoharpax virescens virescens ooth. I used a hot glue gun to secure them to the lid of a 2 oz. deli cup as they came unglued to a container. I have no idea when they will hatch as drizzt did not mention when the ooths were laid. However, I will be expecting some nymphs of this species very soon!
 
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