mantis reproduction question

[olivia640]

Over the past few days I've been finding small clumps of green eggs outside of the entrance to Barbossa's cave. I suppose they could be turbo snail eggs since that's the only other animal in my tank big enough to produce these mystery eggs, but that's not nearly as exciting (also I have no idea what turbo snail eggs look like).

Can female mantis shrimp store sperm for long periods of time? I've had her since November, so who knows how long it's been since she has seen another mantis.

I think Barbossa is a G. chiragra. Do G. chiragras have green eggs?

I'm fairly certain she hasn't eaten anything in the past few days if that means anything at all.

 

[Timmy]

Yes they can store sperm for several months. If the female has not molted, she could have a store of viable sperm.
C. chiragra has green eggs, but i think they are not fertilized. She will eat the eggs in a few days.

 

[Gonodactylus]

If you go to "Stomatopod Sex Pictures" at the top of this Forum, there is a picture titled "Female Gonodactylus carrying eggs". This is a picture of G. chiragra with her green eggs. The eggs are approximately .7 - .8 mm in diameter. When females have no sperm stores, they will sometimes produce clutches of eggs that begin to disintegrated after a few days. The the egg mass becomes ragged and starts to fall apare. At this point, they are usually eaten. At 25 C it takes a developing egg about 10-12 days to develop pigmented eye streaks that will allow you to confirm that the egg is developing. All of the eggs are laid at one time, so if you don't see eye pigment by 12 days after the first eggs are detected, they are not fertile.

Roy

 

[olivia640]

Thanks!
She did molt about two months ago so her eggs probably aren't fertilized, but I'm still going to keep an eye the eggs for a few more days. It's more fun to get my hopes up than to just toss them.