Notes on the reproductive biology knowledge of Parastegmatoptera tessellata Saussure & Zehntner, 1894 (Mantidea)

ESTEBAN AVIGLIANO

NATURA NEOTROPICALIS

ASOCIACIÓN DE CIENCIAS NATURALES DEL LITORAL

Lugar: Santa Fe. DOI: 10.14409/natura.v1i43.4283; Año: 2012 vol. 43 p. 59 - 67

0329-2177

Little is known about the reproductive biology and morphology of the oothecae of Parastagmatoptera tessellata (Saussure & Zehntner). To contribute to this knowledge gap, we studied different characteristics on the egg sacs and nymphs. To this end, we collected egg sacs in the northwest of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A set of them were dissected and studied under magnifying glass to study the morphology of the ootheca and the rest was incubated at room temperature. On hatched individuals, the following parameters were measured: duration of hatching, number of individuals hatched per ootheca and duration of the nymphal stage. There were 35.66 ± 8.3 ootheca hatches with a maximum of 45 and a minimum of 24 between months of October and September. The duration of the nymphal stage is highly variable and was estimated at 93.03 ± 14.4 days for males and 108.96 ± 17.6 for females, finding statistically significant differences between sexes.