# Breeding Orchid Mantis



## bugzilla (Jun 12, 2008)

I put another pair together on Sunday after no success with the last female. The male is about 5 weeks and the female 3 weeks. They've connected no problem other than the female trying to brush him off initially.

He's still on her today and I've seen them connected about 5 times a day  and am continuing to pile the food in with them. I've not seen the male eat though, only the female.

I know they can stay together for a long time but will he be able to mate with another female when they're done?

Also, how long should it take for the female to produce the first ooth and how long between ooths?

Cheers

Huw


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## macro junkie (Jun 12, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> I put another pair together on Sunday after no success with the last female. The male is about 5 weeks and the female 3 weeks. They've connected no problem other than the female trying to brush him off initially.He's still on her today and I've seen them connected about 5 times a day  and am continuing to pile the food in with them. I've not seen the male eat though, only the female.
> 
> I know they can stay together for a long time but will he be able to mate with another female when they're done?
> 
> ...


the male wil need a few days before he will want to mate again.so the female i sent you hasnt laid an ooth.?.i rember you saying u didnt see them conect..have u mated her again?if you have given up on her send me her back..if your willing to mate her again keep her,imo you need to mate her again!


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## bugzilla (Jun 12, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> the male wil need a few days before he will want to mate again.so the female i sent you hasnt laid an ooth.?.i rember you saying u didnt see them conect..have u mated her again?if you have given up on her send me her back..if your willing to mate her again keep her,imo you need to mate her again!


I saw them connected a few times but haven't had the guts to leave them to it like I have with my younger female. Just afraid she'd eat him but may not produce an ooth because of her age and only got one male.

I'll send her back no probs. At least with all your males if the worst comes to the worst you've still got spares. Will you be in to collect tomorrow and I'll post her today.

Thanks for the loan btw


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## macro junkie (Jun 12, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> I saw them connected a few times but haven't had the guts to leave them to it like I have with my younger female. Just afraid she'd eat him but may not produce an ooth because of her age and only got one male.I'll send her back no probs. At least with all your males if the worst comes to the worst you've still got spares. Will you be in to collect tomorrow and I'll post her today.
> 
> Thanks for the loan btw


ok..and of course if i get her to lay some ooths il still share them with you ok..make sure its padded well when you send her..  . il pm you my addy ok..  if worse comes to worse and you need a male let me know i might have 1 spare u can have,


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## OGIGA (Jun 13, 2008)

You UK people are lucky... I want orchid mantises!


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## macro junkie (Jun 13, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> I saw them connected a few times but haven't had the guts to leave them to it like I have with my younger female. Just afraid she'd eat him but may not produce an ooth because of her age and only got one male.I'll send her back no probs. At least with all your males if the worst comes to the worst you've still got spares. Will you be in to collect tomorrow and I'll post her today.
> 
> Thanks for the loan btw


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## bugzilla (Jun 16, 2008)

I've just seperated the pair after a total of 7.5 days. They've been mating constantly in this time but I've not seen the male eat anything so am a bit concerned to leave them any longer. Also no sign of an ooth yet. He was REALLY difficult to remove.

I've put the female in her old container with loads of sticks (lilac I think). How long should she take to lay and also, will the type of twigs cause any problems?


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## Pelle (Jun 16, 2008)

If you put a lot of smaller flies in the enclosure, the male will catch one while he's on her back. And the female will eat the rest in a few minutes

My female laid her first ootheca after 7 weeks( as an adult ), and was mated when she was 4 and a half weeks.

She always laid her oothecae on the lid of her enclosure. Although there where some twigs inside


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## bugzilla (Jun 16, 2008)

Pelle said:


> If you put a lot of smaller flies in the enclosure, the male will catch one while he's on her back. And the female will eat the rest in a few minutesMy female laid her first ootheca after 7 weeks( as an adult ), and was mated when she was 4 and a half weeks.
> 
> She always laid her oothecae on the lid of her enclosure. Although there where some twigs inside


Thanks for the info, looks like I've still got a while to wait then


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## macro junkie (Jun 16, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> Thanks for the info, looks like I've still got a while to wait then


i pulled my male off after they mated as rick suggested


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## bugzilla (Jun 16, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> i pulled my male off after they mated as rick suggested


Same reason as I pulled mine off. He really looked like he was set to s*** himself to death :lol:


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## macro junkie (Jun 16, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> Same reason as I pulled mine off. He really looked like he was set to s*** himself to death :lol:


well i have 5 adult males so as the Russian would say on rocky 4 "if he dies,he dies." in a Russian accent :lol: 

it was hard but i got him off in the end.

on another note my subadult females are eating lots and i have increased the heating to 90f


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## Rob Byatt (Jun 16, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> on another note my subadult females are eating lots and i have increased the heating to 90f


Did you dip them in batter first ?


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## bugzilla (Jun 20, 2008)

6 days on and still no sign of an ooth.

The female isn't feeding as well as normal but is still nice and fat. My female Ghost seems to go off her food a bit before laying so is this a good sign?


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## macro junkie (Jun 20, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> 6 days on and still no sign of an ooth. The female isn't feeding as well as normal but is still nice and fat. My female Ghost seems to go off her food a bit before laying so is this a good sign?


my ghost didnt eat before she laid an ooth..


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## OGIGA (Jun 20, 2008)

All my mantises refused to eat for about a day prior to laying an ootheca.


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## bugzilla (Jun 20, 2008)

Fingers crossed then, I may be a dad soon  

She seems quite restless too (as immobile mantis go)


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## The_Asa (Jun 22, 2008)

She should lay soon.


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## macro junkie (Jun 22, 2008)

its been about a week now sinse i mated my female orhid..shes not laid an ooth..i think we can safley say shes egg bound..  

On a good note iv been feeding my subadult orchids about 3 crickets every single day.i stoped feeding them flys for now..its to much hassle feeding them every day..when is someone going to bring out house flys that cant fly?lol

there so fat there going to pop..the wing buds are swollen up..looks like mayby 1 more week or so and they should shed..  .and all 5 adult males are healthy and waiting to do the business.


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## macro junkie (Jun 22, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> You UK people are lucky... I want orchid mantises!


i wouldn't say luck.i was searching for them for about 9 months untill i got them.the amount of time if spent searching for them many times over the past 9 months iv seen them for sale in the us on the mantid forum..not long back yen had some for sale..  you just need to be on the mantid forum 24hous a day like i am..lol..


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## darkspeed (Jun 22, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> i wouldn't say luck.i was searching for them for about 9 months untill i got them.the amount of time if spent searching for them many times over the past 9 months iv seen them for sale in the us on the mantid forum..not long back yen had some for sale..  you just need to be on the mantid forum 24hous a day like i am..lol..


Well I am on here all the time and I have never seen them on here for US buyers. If it werent for pure dumb luck that I was snooping around Peter's site when he had some listed I would not have gotten ahold of what I got. And even at that I ended up with all girls and no boys, so my chance to increase the US population of orchids was a bust. Hopefully Rebecca's breeding attemps are successful. She seems to be our only hope left, as Yen has since gone out of bizness, and I cant rely on dumb luck to cause me to stumble onto Peter's site every time he has some available.


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## OGIGA (Jun 22, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> i wouldn't say luck.i was searching for them for about 9 months untill i got them.the amount of time if spent searching for them many times over the past 9 months iv seen them for sale in the us on the mantid forum..not long back yen had some for sale..  you just need to be on the mantid forum 24hous a day like i am..lol..


Yeah, well, that was a long time ago. And by the way, is it legal to have exotic mantises over there? I keep hearing UK people saying what they saw in pet stores.


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## Rob Byatt (Jun 23, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> its been about a week now sinse i mated my female orhid..shes not laid an ooth..i think we can safley say shes egg bound..


You need more patience mate  



macro junkie said:


> On a good note iv been feeding my subadult orchids about 3 crickets every single day.i stoped feeding them flys for now..its to much hassle feeding them every day..when is someone going to bring out house flys that cant fly?lol


How is that a good thing ? I'm sure we talked about this


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## macro junkie (Jun 23, 2008)

Rob Byatt said:


> You need more patience mate  How is that a good thing ? I'm sure we talked about this


because the faster they shed to adult the better  and you said if i put it on a plant and sprayed it it would lay after 24hours..i want my 10£ back :lol:


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## Rob Byatt (Jun 23, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> because the faster they shed to adult the better  and you said if i put it on a plant and sprayed it it would lay after 24hours..i want my 10£ back :lol:


.....and the more often you feed them crickets, the greater the chance they'll die  

I'll give you a tenner when you prove to me that she was fat enough


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## macro junkie (Jun 23, 2008)

Rob Byatt said:


> .....and the more often you feed them crickets, the greater the chance they'll die


if they die im blaming you :lol:


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## bugzilla (Jun 25, 2008)

Day 9 post seperation and still no sign of an ooth. She was really uneasy in her old tank and seemed to struggle to grip the top so I've put her in a big net. Still not eating but she seems more comfortable in her new home at least.


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## bugzilla (Jul 1, 2008)

6 days in the net whichis in an 18" cube tank with heat mat and sprayed daily plus loads of BB flies and still no ooth :angry: That 15 days now with no sign.

The male has been on my other female for the past week.

Should I re-mate the original female or is she still likely to lay? How long exactly should it take?


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## bugzilla (Jul 1, 2008)

Just found this article here

Looks like it can take up to 8 weeks for the female to lay. Looks like I've got some waiting yet


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## macro junkie (Jul 1, 2008)

i thought this was cool info

There is also a dark spot in the last part of the abdomen, near the anus. It was demonstrated that this attracts small flies which mistake the spot for an individual of the same species foraging on a flower. A large number are attracted this way, but they sometimes they are not taken by the mantis due to their small size. Bigger species are lured by the abundance of other smaller insects and are immediately captured.


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## hibiscusmile (Jul 2, 2008)

My female took 3 weeks or so to lay after mating, but she was a good 6 or 7 weeks adult before I mated her due to the advice of I think it was Rob. So it does take a while. They do not seem to lay like most other mantis I have.


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## Pelle (Jul 2, 2008)

My female was 4 weeks adult when the male mated her, and 7 weeks adult when she lay her first ootheca.


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## bugzilla (Jul 2, 2008)

It's taking so long I feel like an expectant father. I've got the hot water and towels ready &lt;_&lt; . Alright thats a slight exageration but I have started 4 extra FF cultures and will do some more next week to space them out a bit


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## OGIGA (Jul 2, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> Just found this article hereLooks like it can take up to 8 weeks for the female to lay. Looks like I've got some waiting yet


It took my female about that long too. I thought she was eggbound. Fortunately, she wasn't


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## bugzilla (Jul 3, 2008)

Stupid question here but what did everyones females lay on? Did they use the net top of the cage or did they perfer sticks or something?


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## Pelle (Jul 3, 2008)

My female has laid 7 on the same top lid so far


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## bugzilla (Jul 3, 2008)

Pelle said:


> My female has laid 7 on the same top lid so far


Thanks for that. So nothing needs changing then, just got to be patient.


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## Pelle (Jul 3, 2008)

I quess so :lol: 

Before she lays an ootheca she walks a lot and doesn't eat anymore, at least that's what my female does..


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## bugzilla (Jul 3, 2008)

She's been walking around alot, especially in the evening. She also went off her food for a while but is now eating again &lt;_&lt; . I think she's leading me a merry dance atm, typical woman h34r:


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