Need information to benefit Mantis Shrimp at National Zoo in Washington, DC

[UMD ANSC]

Hello Mantis Maniacs-

My name is Amy and I am a student at the University of Maryland. This semester I am taking Comparitve Nutrition (ANSC 315). We all had to pick from a list of creatures to document their:Life history and digestive tract, energy requirements, amino acid requirements, vitamin and mineral requirements, and diet recommendations. Each of these animals are located at the zoo and the data will be presented to supervisory nutritionist for the benifit of the animals.

Well, I hope if you have read this far you have realized that I picked the Mantis Shrimp (Clown Mantis to be specific).

I have already done journal research, which left me needing more (I've read three of Dr. Roy's papers... facinating).

Were do Clown Mantis come from (ie. part of the world)?

How can you tell males from females (could Tim be a girl, yes, I read the threads)?

Has anyone seen an internal organs diagram of a Mantis?

I saw the mating photos, does anyone breed them; if so what do you feed the larve (they have larve, right)?

Thank you all in advance for your input. I am glad I picked this species.

Amy

 

[Thurge]

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthro...ostraca/royslist/species.php?name=o_scyllarus

 

[UMD ANSC]

Thanks--- I had seen that page... but was not sure that the Peacock and the Harliquin were the same as the Clown.

Dr. Caldwell (Dr. Roy as he is known on the site) is one of the foremost experts in research of marine invertabrates. I have printed out a few of his journal papers alerady.

 

[30mini]

Just wait for Dr. Roy to get on here. He may give you some help with what you need!! I know I remember seeing somewhere that he has internal diagrams of the mantis. I hope you will print your findings on here for all to read!

 

[Gonodactylus]

You have one of the world's authorities on stomatopods at the University of Maryland in Dr. Reaka-Kudlo. If you need some hands on help, you might try talking to her.

The range of O. scyllarus roughly from Guam to East Africa and from sothern Japan to Brisbane and South Africa.

To my knowledge, no one has successfully reared larvae through their extensive larval period in the plankton (at least two or three months).

Aside from the gonopores of females and gonopods of males, you often can get an idea of sex in mature animals by body color. Males tend to be bright green, females more brown or olive.

I don't have any drawings of internal anatomy scanned. Try looking for a paper by Jennifer Wortham on Squilla empusa.

Roy

 

[UMD ANSC]

30 mini--- I definately will make my report avaliable on the site... although you seem to have more useful knowledge, the science part can be cool too.

Dr. Roy- I went to the University site to look at more of your papers, ran across your CV and found her... she has an email waiting for her, requesting a quick meeting. I am super excited about this project, it is a chance to help out the National Zoo and it is not the same old creatures (I didn't know what a Mantis Shrimp was before)

Thanks again.
Amy