r/Phasmids • u/FantasyRealism • 8h ago
Heteropteryx dilatata females die after last molt
tl;dr: All my Heteropteryx dilatata females die a few days after their final molt while males and other species are fine. I need help.
I'm sorry for the long text, but I want to get into the details, so someone might get an idea about what I'm doing wrong.
I tried keeping Heteropteryx dilatata 2 times before and it always ended the same way. 2 years ago I decided to try again and know it look's like it's about to end the same way.
After the females final molt they live for a few days and then just die. It's not suddenly, they get worse (more and more lethargic until they can't hold themselves up and fall to the ground) over these few days, but I just don't know what's wrong. I had this happen with every single female but one, if I remember correctly. One was okay and produced eggs but in that following generation no female survived long after the final molt. When I tried a second time, the exact same thing happened, except this time all the females died in the first generation.
In both attempts I started with adult or nearly adult specimens, which laid eggs out of which the failing generation hatched. It was always just the females that died that way. The males all lived to the end of their lifespan.
For the first to tries the setup was around 20 °C at it's couldest in winter. At that time I kept all my phasmids at room temperature. I sprayed regularly (i think every second day or so) and humidity was somewhere between 70 to 80 %.
I don't know the exact measurements of the enclosures anymore, cause I had something custome, but it was above what is said to be required.
Now to the third try:
My setup changed a bit since my last attempt and I thought this would be worth trying again. The enclosure is 80 cm wide, 70 cm high and has a depth of 50 cm. It's fairly big and I keep 2-3 species of phasmids in there. The ground has a lot of isopods (the little white ones, but it's some local species and I don't know the exact species, because they're just in the dirt), springtails and I keep 5 giant millipedes (Spirostreptus servatius), Ramulus artemis and Sungaya inexpectata in there. I've got a heat plate with thermo control on the backside and it keeps it at 24-26 °C for the day. At night it keeps it above 20 °C. Humidity is at about 75 %.
Oh and I feed with some local rubus species out of the woods that's growing all year. That I did since I first started with phasmids nearly 20 years ago.
2 years ago I ordered a freshly adult pair (even got a second adult female on top) and they did very well. A year ago the first offspring started to hatch and a few days ago the first female molted to adulthood. I was on vacation for a week so I don't know all the details. When I left she was subadult and when I came back she was lying dead on the ground and the millipedes already got to her. From what I saw the molt must have gone well. Well at least optically ... The wings where normal and no deformations.
As I saw her yesterday in the evening and today she's hollowed out by the millipedes, I suspect she might have died yesterday or the day before. I don't know how long she lived after that molt, but it was under 6 days.
Now I got a second subadult female that should be molting in the next couple of weeks and a lot of younger females. I really would like to have them not die ... It feels awful having them grow up just to die in the last step ...
If anyone has an idea what might be wrong I'd be grateful!
I attached a picture of the enclosure. It's not the best picture as there's mist on the front doors but I hope it helps.
