A Few Sibylla Pretiosa

So - here are a few pictures of a Sibylla Pretiosa nymphs I have been raising recently. Hope you enjoy!

Alien Invasion?

 

 

Though you may consider a picture such as this to look like some sort of alien, it is just a female ghost mantis molting to adult – whew!

 

Here is a backed up view of what is going on.

 

 

 

And here is a picture as she looks today – along with a flying snack.

Mantids spend the majority of their lives upside down.
This image is flipped! (=

 

More Spiny Flower Mantis Pics

So – I have thoroughly been enjoying my little spiny flower mantises. They are quite perky and active when young and quite hungry and ferocious when the females become adult. A friend of mine told me that they can get along quite well. What he forgot to tell me was that the females DO NOT get along well when they molt to adult. It may even be wise to separate the females by subadult. In any case, they have been quite fun so far!



A nice picture of a girl crossing a fake flower



A spiny girl posing with her beautiful eyes and antenna





 

Another shot of a girl spiny on a flower

 



Snack time. Menu: cricket.



Almost done. Adult females Spiny Flower mantids can get quite hungry!



A male working to ensuring future generations of spiny flower mantids.

 

Unknown Larvae

So, while raising different varieties of flies outside, my fly rearing container all of a sudden got filled up with the following larvae. They are definitely different than houseflies or black soldier larvae. Hopefully I can find out what they are...

 

Spiny Flower False Start Molting

These are all pictures of a spiny flower subadult girl who took 4 days to molt.

So, I had a spiny flower mantis (pseudocreobotra wahlbergii) that was acting like she was about to molt for three days. In fact, another female in her enclosure molted on the third day on her first try. She did not eat during that time and was becoming quite pale, compared with the other females in her container. On the fourth day I put her under warm water for several minutes (careful to not drown her). I have no idea if this helped, but I am glad she made it! Here are pics of her outside, in her container and a pic of the other girls in her enclosure the day before she finally molted. 

This is the Spiny Flower girl finally molted after 4 days of trying!

The adult girl molted before her the sister who has been trying for 3 days!

 

My outdoor Fly culturing project

The premise for my outdoor fly-culturing project is this: I had previously raised curly-winged houseflies indoors (procured around 2002 from the United Kingdom) and, finding it to be a stinky proposition that my wife would no longer tolerate indoors, I decided to create a container that would both attract flies and allow them to reproduce outdoors. I hope this helps anyone who wishes to raise, breed or attract musca domestica (house flies).

Some factors to consider when raising houseflies are these: adequate ventilation (houseflies and their larvae require a lot of ventilation unless in a dormant state), the prevalence of pests (mites, parasitic wasps and birds), the need to keep the media adequately wet and warm, yet ventilated, the need to keep the pupation area dry and cool, the need for adult flies to have an appealing egg laying site, the need for flies to be able to access the inside of the container and my personal desire to collect additional flies that were in the container to use as feeders.

The first thing I decided to do, before creating the media, was to create the container. I decided to utilize a large detergent bucket with a lid. In order to ensure that flies could come in and out, I created a hole that fit directly with a mayonnaise jar so that I could cut a hole in the top of the mayo jar lid to screw the mayo container on and off (for capturing the excess flies). I then drilled small holes in the top of the container. These holes were drilled to allow fruit (and other small flies) to escape if trapped in the container with larger flies but not to allow house or larger flies to escape, except through the main portal. The reason I drilled holes in the top was so that I could put packaging tape on the sides of the lid. The reason why packaging tape was utilized was to ensure that mites or other ground parasites would have less of an opportunity to attack the fly larvae and pupae.

The plastic Sheet with holes - Note large hole near bottom

To keep the inside of the container moist I decided that a sheet of clear plastic was needed to place in the inside bottom (over the media). As many cookies and other confection containers are often recycled at my work I was easily able to find a sheet of plastic that would fit. The plastic sheet covers ½ to 2/3 of the bottom of container. A 1” hole was created near the bottom on the sheet where the most moisture is. The purpose of this hole is to act as an adjacent opening for the newly hatched larvae to enter the moist media from the oviposition site. Smaller holes were drilled in the clear plastic sheet to enable ventilation while still retaining moisture.



Some of the ingredients in culturing house and bluebottle flies outside.

So here is how I make this container work: The media was mixed from high protein dry dog food (Purina™ Puppy Chow) and a fiber-based product. For this fiber product I used wheat bran (found very cheaply at most feed stores). The dry dog food was crushed in the blender and mixed with wheat bran in a 1-to-1 ratio. This was put in the bottom of only one side of the rearing container. Warm water was mixed in to make a media slurry. The container was tilted to keep the wettest part of the liquid on one side. The clear plastic sheet was then put on top of the media and additional wheat bran was put on the higher side (to stay dry from the media).

Wet slurry/media on left with tissue attractant. Dry Wheat bran on right.

Then a tissue was soaked with a milk-water solution and put next to the 1” hole in the plastic sheet. A few grains of yeast were sprinkled over the 1” hole next to the oviposition site. The lid was added and packaging tape was stuck to the outside of the lid to keep crawling parasites out. The side of the lid with the mayo lid hole was positioned over the dry side (only wheat bran) and the entire container was placed outside (at a slight angle) with the only-bran side on a 1-2” object and the wet media side at ground level.

Ovipositioning of Fly eggs next to media entrance hole. - Yum! (=

After beginning this process I found that two additional modifications helped. First, large plastic screening was added to keep birds out (I found evidence of birds eating fly pupae) =( Next, putting the dry side in a more shady spot helped the larvae to seek to pupate in the dry wheat bran rather than seeking to crawl out of the container. Moisture level needed to be checked each day and this container would have to be positioned in a more covered area if this project were to be attempted in a rainy climate.

Wide rigid netting was required.

Where I keep my fly container on dry 75 degree days

So far, though I have been able to raise many flies to pupae stage (house flies and blue bottles) the majority of the flies have failed to hatch from pupae stage. I fear that I am getting the temperature and humidity wrong for pupae hatching to adults – something I will be fixing soon. Perhaps I am not waiting long enough for the pupae to hatch?

Small Fly Larvae

Large Fly Larvae

Fly Larvae that attempted to pupate in the dry wheat bran

Fly Larvae ready for refrigeration (to delay pupation)

 

In any case, this is a great way to raise flies and I do gather 6-12 large feeder flies just by screwing the mayo jar on top and tapping the sides of the container several times until the flies go up into the mayo jar. Note: Make sure to never leave the mayo jar on for too long, as this will not maintain an adequate supply of oxygen for the developing fly larvae. This container has saved me lots of time and effort and has provided me with a constant supply of flies (howbeit I still need to figure out the pupae to hatching fly stage).

Though specifically created for raising house flies, I have found that the following setup also attracts bluebottle flies as well as other large flies that enjoy the smell and ingredients contained in the medium I use in culturing houseflies outside.

 

 

Flies go in normally

And after a few taps of the container they are collected.

Capturing a few larger flies.

I keep my extra supply of adult flies I capture in a Gatorade container in the fridge with a screen lid and a tissue with sugar-water for them to feed on whilst in their dormant state. I transfer them after chilling them for exactly 1 minute in my freezer. Then when I want them I shake a few out and put them in the container where hungry mantises await.

Simple Drosophila (fruit fly) containers using Gatorade bottles.

So, the last time I had this mantis hobby I used Gatorade bottles and small pieces of cloth, which I washed and reused. However, I did not like that the cloth  got so dirty over time and I changed from using rubber bands from attaching the fine screen to the bottle cap, itself. Additionally I found that the lower cap portion can be pressed onto the top cap to form a tight band to keep the screen in place, without the need for glue. The process for making this type of container is very easy. Everything (except for the flies themselves and the media, or food) is washed with very hot soapy water, rinsed, dried and frozen to prevent any problems with parasitic mites.

 

 

So, here is what you will need to make a fruit fly rearing container from a Gatorade bottle:

- An empty washed Gatorade bottle with both top and bottom lid parts.

- A razor blade or other cutting utensil

- Some form of very fine screen that does not allow for any fruit flies to pass through

- Scissors (preferably fabric scissors)

- A cutting board to keep from gouging a nice surface from the razor blade

First: remove the top and bottom portions of the lid from the Gatorade container.

 

 

Second: Put the bottom lid piece over the top to ensure a tight fit. Some other brands of bottles, like Vitamin Water, will also work but others will not.

 

Third: Cut a hole in the top lid (as large as possible while maintaining structural integrity) The bottom lid piece can be on or off during this process.

 

Fourth: Cut a piece of fine screen large enough that there will be plenty of room fit it over the lid.

Fifth: Remove the bottom lid piece from the top lid piece, put the screen on the top lid piece and push the bottom lid ring over the screen around the top lid as far down as possible. The harder it is to put the ring on, the more secure the screen will be.

Sixth: Check to make sure the lid fits properly on the container.

 

 

Finally: Put in fruit fly media and substrate for immature larvae to pupate on and adults to stay on. My substrate is reusable plastic screen used for holding produce, such as oranges. This is also washed, dried and frozen along with the rest of the container.

 

 

 

As a side note: For those of you who are used to making fruit fly cultures with a deli cup and cloth insect lid, using Gatorade containers creates much more condensation when the culture is placed over a heat source. Make sure to make your culture much drier than you would do with a deli cup culture.

An old d. Hydei culture that will need to be tossed soon.