# Bob and Cochise mating advise



## Mantis Lady (Apr 10, 2018)

My female mantis is close to molting (she don't want to eat anymore) and will become adult. I would like to have her a male to mate with. What instar should the male be? I am going to  to look for one. is a sub adult ok, or should I go for adult?

I bought Cochise as hierodula sp. But i think she is a Hierodula membranacea.







This is a pic of her. Hopefully you can see if she is a Hierodula Membranacea or not.


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## Mantis Lady (Apr 19, 2018)

Cochise is a big female now. I would like to know what species she excatly is so i can go look for mate. I want give cochise full mantis life and a mate fits in there too (not having him for dinner of course.)


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## River Dane (Apr 19, 2018)

Congratulations on her molt to adult! She’s beautiful, I like her lemon-y green color.

I’ve never worked with this species, but I think general breeding advice is to get a much younger male, since females can live a while. 

And again, congratulations! May she have a long and happy adult life. Hope you find her a good mate!


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## Mantis Lady (Apr 21, 2018)

Thanks.

Yeah, I like her colors too. her wings are soft green. I hope that she will indeed stay with me long and healthy.

@*River Dane*: do you think about a sub adult male of just a young adult male?


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## Predatorhousepet (Apr 23, 2018)

She looks identical to how my Hierodula membranacea looks so I'm pretty sure you are guessing correctly. A young male or subadult would work, females live around 6 to 8 months after becoming an adult so you have some time for a male to go through several molts until he's old enough. (You can speed up time between molts by overfeeding him but that also shortens his lifespan.) I am also thinking about getting a male for my adult female Hierodula but I haven't seen anything but very young nymphs for sale since I started looking. Good luck on finding your female a mate.


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## Mantis Lady (Apr 23, 2018)

Thanks, then I will go for a Hierodula membranacea  male. The site where i bought Cochise has only very young nymphs. I prefer an older one. So have to do more searching for a mate.

Good luck too with finding a nice mate for your hierodula


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## Predatorhousepet (Apr 24, 2018)

If you check the breeder ads here in this forum it looks like hcarlton has sexed L5 to L8 Hierodula membranacea for $7 each. He seems to have a good reputation in the feedback section.


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## Mantis Lady (Apr 24, 2018)

hcarlton lives in the US. I think the journey is too long to my country. I live in the Netherlands.

I found a site in Germany  that has hierodula membranaceas too and has sub adult males for sale. I just got 3 mantids from there, so will get my male from there too.


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## Predatorhousepet (Apr 24, 2018)

Ok cool. I didn't see that you lived in the Netherlands. Glad you were able to find a source closer to you.


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## Mantis Lady (May 3, 2018)

A mate for Cochise will be send on monday to me. A friend suggested to call him Bob, so for now I call him Bob too. He is a sub adult. So I need to build him a nice home before he arrives B)


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## River Dane (May 3, 2018)

Congratulations! Good luck with the mating!


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## MantisGirl13 (May 3, 2018)

Yes! I hope that Cochise has some babies later! 

- MantisGirl13


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## Mantis Lady (Jun 26, 2018)

@MantisGirl13@Predatorhousepet@Jessie@River Dane@Synapze

Bob finally molted. His wings are almost done too. But now we can talk about breeding.

I dont think so Bob will befully ready I am thinking about getting 1 more inferile ooth. I know I have to fill Cochises belly before letting her meet Bob. I don't want him to loose his head off course. Where can I try the mating? In a special box with fake plants? I would love to to get some advise in this because it is my first time to try to mate 2 mantids.


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## River Dane (Jun 26, 2018)

Congratulations on the molt @Little Mantis. 

Here’s some care guides: Keeping Insects, MantidKingdom.

Hopefully more experienced breeders of this species can help you more, though. Good luck!


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## Mantis Lady (Jun 26, 2018)

Yeah, I like to hear from  ppl who has experience with mating hierodulas. I can learn from that.  Bob looks handsome with his wings. Tomorrow I will see if Bob is hungry. But need to wait at least 7 days for mating.

Cochise is very fat again. Maybe she will lay an ooth again this weekend.

Pics I show later


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## MantisGirl13 (Jun 28, 2018)

Post pics of Bob please! I am sure he is handsome!

- MantisGirl13


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## Mantis Lady (Jun 28, 2018)

There comes a pic where  Bob looks handsome:


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## MantisGirl13 (Jun 29, 2018)

Wow! He's a beauty! I love the blue-green wings. Yummy cricket!   

- MantisGirl13


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## Synapze (Jun 29, 2018)

Bob is handsome. ?


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## bugboymark (Jun 29, 2018)

I paired my hierodula venosa female and male on a vertical screen surface.  I think having enough room is important, but there's all different ways to accommodate that.  I did originally try to get them together too early. The female was a couple weeks old (male was 3 weeks old) and she showed now signs of calling yet.  He ignored her entirely.  A week later, when she was calling and well-fed, I placed him about 10 inches behind her and he locked on and made the leap within 10 seconds!  He was completely engaged with the female within a minute and mating lasted a few hours.  A week later, I mated them again just to be safe.  She gave me 4 big ooths before dying a couple months ago.  The first three already emerged with the first ooth giving me well over 300 nymphs.  Never seen that many before.

Anyhow, from my small experience with them...mating is pretty simple. Not sure if there are distinct trends and mating behaviors across all species or not.  Mating my S. gastrica pair a couple months ago was a LOT of work.  The male was completely goofy and preferred my finger over the female 75% of the time!  Regardless, if she's ready and the male is mature enough, he'll figure out a way to make it happen in almost any setting!  Best to have supervision though...as we all know how it can turn out!  ?


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## Mantis Lady (Jun 29, 2018)

Bob is a matured a couple of days ago. Cochise is adult for almost 2 months now. I have seen her calling, but bob was still sub adult.

Think she will lay an infertle ooth this weekend, her abdomen is almost exploding. She refuses to eat (not that strange with fat belly) And she likes roach abdomen.

I will try to mate them next week.


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