# Pseudocreobotra ooths



## jonpat83

How often can a pseudocreobotra wahlbergi female lay an ooth if well fed, and do they stop feeding for any time before they lay?


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## julian camilo

? cons?der my p.wahlberg?? female well fed and she would lay one every 7/8 days. she never stopped eat?ng because she was about to lay an ooth, though she would stop when she was pretty much full, then take food aga?n after a day or so.


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## jonpat83

how long was she adult when she first laid?


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## jonpat83

do they lay anywhere in particular, I put a lot of sticks and plants around for them.


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## julian camilo

she had been adult for 14 days, i mated her when she was adult for 12 days and she laid two days after that. every ootheca she has laid has been on a certain type of twig/branch, and pretty much always at an angle. only once has she laid it on the container side, and that was her most recent one. before this, it was always on a dark coloured branch, about 1cm diameter, at an angle of about 45 degrees but i didnt measure the angle or anything, and it was never precise, i just mean, she never chose a branch parallel to the floor/container sides over one which was at an angle. she did choose darker coloured twigs/branches over the lighter colours. as the ootheca developed and darkened, it was pretty much the same colour as the branch it was laid on. so try to find some dark coloured twigs of a good/medium thinckness, and have a few/most of them going at angles. thats about all i would say really. keep feeding her as much as she will eat every day too. OH and also, try to offer a variety of stuff to eat, wild caught stuff if you can (on these warmer nights, moths are plentiful, and on warmer days, so are bumblebees and flies). wild caught stuffs great! good luck!


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## yen_saw

I have noticed that the longer a mated P. Wahlbergii took to lay an ooth, the longer it will be. Most P. Wahlbergii lay regular size ooth around 1.5 - 2 inches, but two of my P. Wahlbergii will wait for almost a month before laying a huge ooth around 3.5 inches long







I just have another one laid an ooth almost 4 inches long!! if i used a longer chopstick i believed it can go longer lol


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## jonpat83

:shock: thats a big ooth for a mantis of their size, my female matured on the 20th of May and was mated at three weeks, she eats almost everyday on moths and flies a lot of which are wild caught as Julian suggests and her abdomen has been huge for weeks but still no ooth, i'm almost scared to keep feeding her as her abdomen is so big I dont know how much more it can take!


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## wuwu

don't most mantids stop eating when they can't eat no more? i've read of people saying that they've had mantids that ate till their stomach tore, but i don't know about that. my female m. paykullii dropped her half eaten bee today because it was too full. maybe some species do, and some don't?


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## julian camilo

ive never had a mantis eat itself to death, ive always seen them stop eating and drop food, or just refuse to catch it, and simply bat it away.

by the way yen that ooth is MASSIVE, very impressive. any idea what makes them do this? because if they wait a month bfore laying it, then it deserves to be that big, as other female may have laid four in the same time, totalling up around the same number of nymphs (well, less for the infrequent layer). i really wonder what makes them think "nah, i'll wait a bit more and put a massive one down rather than lost of medium ones as soon as im ready". different strategies they have i guess.

although, the longest my female ever laid was only about 1cm smaller than the large one you have posted here, and was still laid just 8 days after the previous one (which was of average size, 5cm). so maybe it isnt always to do with how long they wait, but something else?


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## yen_saw

Good point Julian, i will see how many oothecae she produces (as compared to the PW females that produced smaller ooth).


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## jonpat83

Im quite worried about my oldest girl now, I noticed her trying to lay last night but her abdomen is so huge that when she hangs on the branch to lay her abdomen falls to the side and is then too heavy to lift up without her crawling back on top of the branch. she only tries laying in a upside down position and going downwards.

Will she maybe try a different position as she has been trying since 5.30pm yesterday and just gets no-where!

One of my other females laid the other day no problem at all except that she was the only unmated one of the three, just bloody typical :x


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## Rick

> Im quite worried about my oldest girl now, I noticed her trying to lay last night but her abdomen is so huge that when she hangs on the branch to lay her abdomen falls to the side and is then too heavy to lift up without her crawling back on top of the branch. she only tries laying in a upside down position and going downwards.Will she maybe try a different position as she has been trying since 5.30pm yesterday and just gets no-where!
> 
> One of my other females laid the other day no problem at all except that she was the only unmated one of the three, just bloody typical :x


All mantids I have ever seen lay eggs in the head down position.


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## jonpat83

Yeah but her abdomen hangs out to the side when she is upsidedown so the tip doesn't make contact with the branch she wants to lay on.


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## jonpat83

The female is still trying to lay but just cant get her abdomen to stay up, I tried keeping her off food to let her lose some weight but she is just so full of eggs. Thats 5 days she has been trying for, i've been keeping the humidity up to try to help her, is there anything else I can do to help her lay :?:


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## julian camilo

i once saw someones photobucket where they had some photos of a p.whalbergii laying an ootheca on a piece of board or something. it was not horizontal, but mainly vertical. maybe if your female tries laying in this position (straight down, vertical at a slight angle) she might find it easier, as the abdomen wont hang either of the wings, it might be less effort to hold it up in this position?

here it is:

http://www.mantiskingdom.com/gallery/displ...um=6&amp;pos=13

just an idea.

good luck.


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## jonpat83

Thanks, i'll give that a try and let you know what happens


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## Hasek

I know this is an old topic but I will write here anyway...

My female P. wahlbergii matured on 5.10.2007 and my male today on 10.10.2007. When should I try to mate them? Any helpful tips about the whole thing? Are females very agressive to males? I know I should feed the female as much as she eats and wild caught insects are the best, right?

Thanks in advance,

Nina


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## yen_saw

You can try to pair them up by the end of this month. Adult female spiny flower is agressive and always well aware of any "suspicious" male around her so you are right about the well fed part. Put them together in a large net cage with plenty of leaves and twigs. For some reason, evening time works the best for me


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## asdsdf

Yay, I finally got my P. Ocellata to mate today. (Still are) The cool thing is, she was only 8 days mature!!! The female looked at the male a couple of times, but I always distracted her with food. Hmmm....is it normal for the female to walk around while still connected? Never happened to me before.

Also, how do you care for the ooths, Yen?


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## yen_saw

Yeah some of my P. Ocellata i kept in a group starting to mate only a week after maturing into adult too. But not every male/female are willing to mate this early. If you disturb them during mating, alert female will walk away, she is just trying to stay away from you  

I am keeping the ooth the same way as how i incubate their parents' ooth. 80-85F, 60%, mist every other day.


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## asdsdf

yen_saw said:


> Yeah some of my P. Ocellata i kept in a group starting to mate only a week after maturing into adult too. But not every male/female are willing to mate this early. If you disturb them during mating, alert female will walk away, she is just trying to stay away from you  I am keeping the ooth the same way as how i incubate their parents' ooth. 80-85F, 60%, mist every other day.


Lol, but I don't think so. She was walking toward me, off the thing she was non. She stopped though, when I bribed her with food. Man, the male is concentrating on mating, and not moving, while the female eats, cleans itself, walks around, and went to the bathroom!!! Are all females like that??? :blink: 

Thanks. Do you get the ooth wet though?


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## yen_saw

Sounds normal to me. what's the worry? ANyway, every mantis has its own "character" so to speak. SOme are skittish and some are more agressive.


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## macro junkie

Rick said:


> All mantids I have ever seen lay eggs in the head down position.


my grass mantis and griffing both laid theres upside down.


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