# Breeding troubles



## jonpat83 (Aug 25, 2006)

Has anyone else had trouble breeding Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi?

Mine were all raised to adulthood without any problem at all but now they are adult I cant get an ooth!

My first female matured in may and was mated about 3 weeks after maturing, all seemed well until she came to lay, as soon as she tilts her abdomen to start laying it falls to the side and doesn't make contact with her chosen site. She has been trying every day to lay for several weeks on end and I wonder if it is cruel letting her go on like this as she never stops trying and must be exhausted!

My second female matured a few days after the first and was mated about a week after her and then again the next week. After a couple of days she started to lay but only produced about 5mm of scrunched up ooth and then stopped. I thought she would maybe lay properly within a few days but she never did, then a three days ago she started to try again, she has been up and down many branches with her abdomen pumping and dipped to lay but nothing ever comes out and I have no idea why.

My third female was the youngest, moulting a month after the first. Mating was attempted at three weeks but she would not let the male near her, I tried again a week later but saw nothing so I left them together for a few hours. When i came back the male was all gone apart from 1 front leg and his wings, I'm pretty sure no mating happened. Surprise surprise

a couple of days later she lays an ooth but unfertilised! 2 Days later she laid another ooth although a bit smaller than the first. I had a subadult male moult the day she laid the second ooth so I thought 2 weeks time and i'll pair them, well twelve days after he matured she goes and bloody dies. AAARGH!

Now maybe i'm just incredibly unlucky with this species or something but I have bred my orchids without any trouble. I really like pw's but I dont know what i'm doing wrong, has anyone else had similar trouble or am I the only one?


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## wuwu (Aug 25, 2006)

what was their diet like?


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## nympho (Aug 26, 2006)

hi

have you tried placing the first female on a horizontal surface. if shes already started she should carry on going, like my heirodula female did in the thread 'some ooth laying pics'. in her case, she had damaged feet and kept slipping, which was putting her off laying.


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## jonpat83 (Aug 26, 2006)

They are all fed on a mix of butterflies, bluebottles, waxmoths, hover flies and any big fat moths that come to my window at night so I dont think their diet should be a problem.

I have tried them on all different surfaces for laying but they will only try when they are upside down and facing the ground. If I try to move them they just stop for a few minutes and then crawl back to their original position and try again without success.

They are kept at 24-29 degrees and I spray every day as they often like a drink.


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## yen_saw (Aug 28, 2006)

Hi Jonpat, recently i have trouble breeding this species as well. They were mated but some of my female lay small pieces of ootheca and the rest were unfertilised. I have no idea to be honest but this is my second generation of inbreeding. I'm also suspecting the PW males are shooting "blank" :? i am starting to feed flower type mantis more pollen and see if that helps. I fed my previous generation of PW wild caught insects but not the current generation.


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## jonpat83 (Aug 29, 2006)

Unfortunately both of my females died today so no ooths at all, I now have only an unmated adult male of this species so I think I will sell him on so someone else can try


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