# A New Way of Sexing



## agent A (Sep 19, 2009)

Okay so has anyone tried to sex a mantis with like a magnifying glass or something but it wouldn't stay still? Well I have news for you. Examination of shed skin is a great way of sexing your mantis. I usually sex my mantids by looking at the end of the abdomen and seeing whether or not there is a genital cup, or an ovipositor at the end. This is good for species like Creobroter, whose segments are especially small and hard to properly count. I can sex a mantis as early as L3 with this method. If you can't view the end of the abdomen on a live mantis because it's so active, use a shed skin, as long as the mantis was at least L3 before it shed the skin you examined, then you can use a magnifying glass or microscope to look at it. Also you might need something to hold it, as shed skin blows around with the lightest breath.


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## massaman (Sep 19, 2009)

I have another way of sexing as I was using this with my 1st instar giant asians as by looking at their back ends with no magnifying glass or anything and just using my eyesight and if one is more of a trianglular shape and longer then its the female and the rounder end shaped ones are the males but as of any technique there prob is a small margin of error!


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## agent A (Sep 19, 2009)

massaman said:


> I have another way of sexing as I was using this with my 1st instar giant asians as by looking at their back ends with no magnifying glass or anything and just using my eyesight and if one is more of a trianglular shape and longer then its the female and the rounder end shaped ones are the males but as of any technique there prob is a small margin of error!


I thought you couldn't sex L1 nymphs.


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## idolomantis (Sep 19, 2009)

Why bother sexing(unless you're going to sell them) before L5?


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## agent A (Sep 19, 2009)

idolomantis said:


> Why bother sexing before L5?


uh, to name them. :lol:


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## idolomantis (Sep 19, 2009)

Why bother naming them...


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## agent A (Sep 19, 2009)

that's what I know them by, why name humans? Refering to them by names is very easy in case I need a record, I had like 4 creobroter female nymphs at once, if I said one died as opposed to calling her by a name, such has Mellisa, then you would have a better idea of what I was talking about. Man do I miss Mellisa, now if I just called her my female creobroter, you might not know what one I was talking about.


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## massaman (Sep 19, 2009)

lets just say that I am trying to pair up some 1st instar giant asian nymphs and I dont want to wait till most of them eat each other to find which is which so I am trying to figure it out by eye site and the nymphs I figure even at l1 should be easy to tell apart in some wah!


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## Ntsees (Sep 19, 2009)

massaman said:


> lets just say that I am trying to pair up some 1st instar giant asian nymphs and I dont want to wait till most of them eat each other to find which is which so I am trying to figure it out by eye site and the nymphs I figure even at l1 should be easy to tell apart in some wah!


+1

Nice way of putting it. That's exactly what I do too because I don't want to wait until I find out that all the immature males were eaten by the immature females or vice versa (which was a very close encounter this year - 1 male and 8 females lol). Not only that, I learn to sex the immatures because when I'm short on males or females, I'll be able to know which sex an immature is when I catch him/her in the wild (you hand pick the one you want instead of hoping that the one you got will be the one you need).


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## bassist (Sep 20, 2009)

Shouldn't even need to bother with such things unless it is a difficult species or a species where the males reach adulthood much earlier than the females (i.e. _Hymenopus coronatus_) just keep between 6-20 larvae and you'll get a few pairs at least.


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## agent A (Sep 20, 2009)

6 doesn't cut it, I got 8 hierodulas and 6 were male.


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## bassist (Sep 20, 2009)

agent A said:


> 6 doesn't cut it, I got 8 hierodulas and 6 were male.


Six is the _least _you want if you plan on breeding.


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## agent A (Sep 20, 2009)

yes that's true. Sometimes you might get lucky with 2 though.


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## Sneaky123 (Jul 30, 2012)

I got lucky with two ghosts lol

Btw, if ur wondering y I'm on old topics, it's cuz I'm trying to find what a mantis ovipositor looks like!!


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## Rick (Jul 30, 2012)

Not really anything new. I've seen others who use shed skins before. And if you need to keep track of them why not use numbers or letters? Just a thought.


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## Norlin (Jul 31, 2012)

hmmm, never named any of mine, maybe I'll start naming them after forum members...feed the members I like the extra tasty flies


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## gripen (Jul 31, 2012)

It's not so new any more lol.


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## MandellaMandy123 (Jul 31, 2012)

Hmm... I'll try that...

To add to the naming discussion, I always name mine. If I didn't name them, I wouldn't even keep them. They're my pets.


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## Norlin (Jul 31, 2012)

I only named my children because I was legally obligated to do so...


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## gripen (Jul 31, 2012)

Norlin said:


> I only named my children because I was legally obligated to do so...


There is always child one and child two


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## Norlin (Jul 31, 2012)

that's kind of like naming them, nah, I just refer to them as boy and girl


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## gripen (Jul 31, 2012)

Norlin said:


> that's kind of like naming them, nah, I just refer to them as boy and girl


Hehehehehhehe


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## agent A (Jul 31, 2012)

well since i'm parthenogenic i dont have to name my children

i try not to get too attached cause i end up eating them to nourish the next one...

:tt2:


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