# Orchid mating



## jonpat83 (Jul 12, 2006)

My two female orchids matured about a month ago now and I managed to track down two males who matured two weeks ago. They were all paired three days ago and I was amazed at how docile the females were. They were quite aware of the males approach and never made any attempt at aggression as I nervously watched, the males just watched the females for a few minutes and then hopped on. I suppose the females could wipe out the males so quickly if they wanted to that they have evolved to be more docile towards them otherwise they would have died out before now. It was funny seeing them doing the drumming that ive heard some of you talk about. The males have still not got off the females backs but seem quite happy to stay put, I dont know how long they will stay on for though, I'm just so excited with the whole thing as I hadn't bred orchids before and i'm surprised at how easy the whole thing was so far. Here's hoping for some good ooths soon!


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## wuwu (Jul 12, 2006)

congrats! i can't wait till my orchids mature.


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## jonpat83 (Jul 12, 2006)

How many have you got? they are gorgeous as adults, the females are huge compared to other flower mantis species.


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## wuwu (Jul 12, 2006)

i bought 10 L1's. but 3 died, and now i'm left with 7 L3's. one died as a L1, another died when it fell while molting into a L2, and one died as a L2 because there was something wrong with it's mouth and it couldn't eat.


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## jonpat83 (Jul 12, 2006)

Oh yeah I remember that from another post, hope they do well for you, try and identify your males as soon as you can so you can slow them down for the females to keep up with them. I didnt do this with my original male and he matured when my females still had three moults to go! I sold him on so that someone could get use from him but it was difficult trying to find males later on for my females.


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## jonpat83 (Aug 6, 2006)

Yeah! One of my orchids layed her first ooth last night, quite big too and different from what I expected, the last inch seems a bit crappy though as you can see some of the eggs and it is rather squint!

How are your little orchids getting on wuwu?


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## wuwu (Aug 7, 2006)

congrats!

i finally got around to sexing them a few weeks ago. i have 4 females and 3 males. all are L5 except for two females which molted into L6 a few days ago.


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## jonpat83 (Aug 8, 2006)

Thats quite a good number of each sex, I hope you have as much luck as I have so far.


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