Gongylus gongylodes
I started this species back in 2005, unfortunately the half of dozen i ordered turn out to be females. By the time i received the male, the
females were old, and due to the lack of knowledge on breeding method the male did not mate with the females because I was not
aware of the high temperature requirement to get the male into the 'mood'. Then in early 2006 i have a chance to raise a pair into adult,
but maybe due to wrong food choice (probably excessive meal worms and crickets) the hatching rate was low (just 5-8 nymphs from
the first few oothecae).
Order: Mantodea
Family: Empusidae Burmeister, 1838
Subfamily: Empusinae Burmeister, 1838
Genus: Gongylus Thunberg, 1815
Species: gongylodes Linnaeus, 1758
The previous experience with violin mantis left me think I should wait until I am more prepare before keeping this species again. But I
have gain good experience from my previous two trials on breeding this species. Still I strongly believed I will soon be able to revisit
this species. However, I did not got the chance to try on this species until July last year. The timing was right actually. I want to take this
opportunity to thank Craig who kindly send me two violin mantis oothecae as gift. Each of the ootheca hatched out 20s nymphs and I
have a good number of breeding stock for this species. With the lesson learn from the previous two breeding experience, together with
the experience from breeding idolomantis, the new group of violin grow quickly and breeding well this time!
Following is the breeding cage where i have the males together (this is a species which could live together and canibalism is not
common). The net cage is from the a good friend Christopher (www.livemonarch.com)
Some of the mating pictures. One of them was taken from outside the cage where two pairs were observed pairing up. The key to
pairing is to kick start the adult male with 100-110F tgemperature. Once mated, female is capable of producing around 15 oothecae
through out her adult life.
