Mega dubia phenomena

[Keith]

The mad scientist (me) has been very busy these past few months with my dubia colony.

My nymphs for my color experiment are finally starting to mature.

I am noticing rather large nymphs this batch, larger than normal. All my dubia are from the same Mom so genetics are the same.

I am not sure if they grow an extra instar, or if they all along have just been extra large, I havent kept track each molt but all my nymphs are same exact age so when some shed and didnt become adults, and now im seeing others become adults, I know something is up. What I do know is that i'm finding last instar male nymphs as big as normal female nymphs and last instar female nymphs bigger than mature female dubia, I know males almost always are smaller as mature nymphs and female nymhps shouldnt be bigger than adults! Not all of my nymphs are like this, i've already had normal sized male and female nymphs mature from this batch.

What is your opinion? Extra instar, or gigantism genetics?

 

[vfox]

Neither. This is pretty normal for mine. My sub adults are almost always as large or larger than their adult morphs. I have a feeling it has to do with wing development in males and wingpad development in females. The extra body parts need to be stored somewhere under the old sheds beforehand so their body needs to be a little larger before the final molt. That's my opinion.

 

[Keith]

But most aren't large I only have 4 or 5 out of 60 like this, it can't be normal. Sometimes adults are smaller than normal which will makes nymphs larger, but the point is in my colony this is not what is happening.

Ill have to post photos when more are mature for comparison