Posted by silver_arctic1 on April 17, 2003 at 21:57:43:
In Reply to: New Ootheca, what to do? posted by bluewaterhunter on April 17, 2003 at 19:50:09:
A banded African mantis...I bet it's a parasphendale species. I don't mean to disappoint you, but unless you got her as an adult, she's not likely to be fertile. And even if she's been a mated adult, it should've only taken her at most 2 weeks to lay the ootheca. But nonetheless, Parasphendales have been know to reproduce by parthenogenis (no mating required, all nymphs are a bit weaker and all female).
For the eggcase, just leave it in the tank for about 6 weeks. Spray it every other day to keep the ootheca moist. Room temperature should work fine, but a light bulb would do it no harm. I have a couple of fertile oothecas incubating and I'm expecting them to hatch out in the next two weeks or so. When they do hatch out, you may keep them communally at first to make feeding easier. Feed them fruit flies 2 days after they hatched. If you don't know where to get fruit flies, they are available at Petco for $5 a vial or you can go to www.flyculture.com that has them for $8 for a huge vial (it makes 10x the amount of the small vial).
Keep me updated and let me know if you need any more help.
Regards,
Evan
