It is with a very heavy heart that I report that while I was able to rear my female Pseudacanthops nymph to maturity, she died two days after maturing... 😭
I believe the issue was ventilation, I was keeping her rather humid, but the ventilation in the setup she came with apparently wasn't high enough, and the resulting stagnant air proved fatal to her upon maturity (despite not having bothered her as a nymph). I've had a similar experience with certain Ectobiid roaches, and feel a fool for having made the exact same mistake again, this time with a mantis.
The only other explanation that was suggested to me was she may have suffered from some random internal injury post molt as a weird fluke, but I'm not quite satisfied with that theory myself (perhaps I'm just too quick to blame myself though, IDK...).
In any case, this put me in quite a pickle, as I have a subadult male scheduled to mature soon, and no female to mate him with... Thankfully after some searching, a breeder came to me who was selling one of her excess adult females! This female had matured on Jan 15th, and is the perfect age for breeding, so I quickly purchased her, and I'm happy to say she's been doing quite well for me in the time I've had her. 😁 I've made sure that she and ALL my mantids have a lot of ventilation now, to avoid any similar incidents in the future... 😅
Here are some pictures of her:
Such a pretty species! 😍 This female is a LOT lighter than my other female was, and even has some light green mottling on her forelegs! 😁 Here's hoping she continues to do well for me, and doesn't eat the male when I attempt to mate them... Whenever he actually decides to mature that is. 🙃😂
Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, I'll be sure to keep y'all posted on this project! Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
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