Texas Unicorn log

(2-18-07) The Mexican Unicorn mantis ootheca hatched yesterday!! I have increased the incubation temperature and humidity by
spraying more often and that apparently did the track. All the nymphs looks somewhat similar to Pseudovates Peruviana but
smaller and skinnier. However, the little two "teething" or horn are visible even at L1. I am pretty excited about it as this species
have never been bred in the USA before. I will keep track of this species for sure. Right now, they are kept at around 80-85F in the
afternoon and 65-75F at night.

(3-10-07) All my breeding stock are doing great without a single casualty. It does seem hard to believe that species this easy to
keep are so rare in the culture. So it must be the breeding i guess, well, guess i have the chance to find out when they reached
adulthood. Anyway, they are still feeding the large fruit flies but few have started to molt into L3, the horn is getting very visible.

(3-15-07) All the L2 nymphs have molted into L3, the horn are more visible now. They are taking house fly already and very
communal so far. I need to take more pics of the wonderful species soon.

(3-21-07) A few of this sepcies molted into L4, the horn is getting longer. I am feeding them pollen coated house flies and the
mantis have no problem catching it. The thorax for L4 nymphs are getting longer too, and so far they are very communal.

(3-28-07) Some had molted into L5, their thorax appeared stretch out and the horn is prety obvious by now. They are communal
species so far and do well with less spraying. I am keeping them close to the window so they can get plenty of sunlight, but i also
have fake leaves and plenty of shade to rest on and hiding.

(4-8-07) Some of the larger nymphs have reached L6, it should be another 2-3 molt before they turn adult. I have noticed that the
thorax part vibrates when they caught a fly. They are large enough to handle blue bottle by now. Obviously the "horn" is growing
longer as well. Still no casualty due to cannibalism, eventhough i was low on flies recently.

(4-20-07) Some of the larger nymphs have reached subadult. I can finally determine their gender... i know i am terrible at it! Well, it
is actually similar to Phyllovates sp from Peru. Male has thicker antenna and slimmer wingbug, while female has a wider budwing
(on the first budwing) and thinner antenna.

(4-29-07) It is confirmed!! They are communal species. I have did a test and starved some of them in the net cage. They appear to
be tolerate to each other existance. After the fifth day, i let some blue bottle flies in the cage and they started to feed on it
immediately. Sometimes they get into a fight trying to steal each other food but never really threaten each other life with the
aggressive grips or bites.

(4-30-07) One of my subadult male matured into adult today! What a brilliant looking species. He is close to 3-inch. Looking
forward to see an adult female soon.

(5-12-2007) I have many adult pairs now and they are definitely communal species as some were left molted into adult without
any problem of being eaten by another. It is more communal than the violin mantis that I have seen. Due to the low humidity (I
started to spray less!), mismolting happened to a few specimen. But after I raise the humidity and spraying daily on the net cage,
all of the subadult have been molting alright without any messed up wing. So lesson learn: prior to adult stage, increase humidity
and misting frequency! I will start to pair them by end of next week. It is still wonderful to watch their pronotum vibrating when
they caught a prey. Adult specimen feed on a lot of food!!

(5-13-2007) One of the "oldest" mature pair manage to get together!! I introduced the female into the cage full of adult male.
Immediately, she drew lot of attention. Moment later, a male quickly jump on top, but he was chased off by another male. All the
males started to fight for the female and the "strongest" male manage to mount the female. I took the connected pair for some
photo session and placed them into separate cage. The copulation took about few hours and male fluttered away. Female were
fed couple of crickets during the entire process.

(5-14-2007) So far several adult female have been mated, but no female produces any ooth in 32 oz. So i put some of the mated
females each in a larger enclosure with real oak sticks. Soon enough, one of the female laid an ooth!! Also, i am heating up the
cage and introduce female in a cage full of males, it seems to work very well, but male seems to die faster this way?! I have lost 3
male so far, so showed sign of losing legs and wings, obviously they have been fighting for the female or been attacked by adult
female.

(5-30-2007) I have mated all the available female, it was not very difficult because this species appears to be communal and i
have yet to see any cannibalism since hatchling stage. Some females started to produce their first ootheca. i have noticed that
adult male seem to live longer if house them separately instead of having them together, i believed keeping all the male together
appeared to heavy loses of at least 12 other males. The good thing was all the female were mated for at least once. I have each
female in an individual gal tank with stick and twig inside the container, they seem to like it and most lay ootheca on the stick,
although one of the ooth was found on the towel paper.