# Iris Oratoria



## joossa (Oct 17, 2006)

I have:

-a male Iris oratoria that is full grown (his wings run the entire length of his abdomen)

-a female iris oratoria. I do not believe that she is fully grown because her wings are about 3/4 the length of her abdomen)

If my female is not fully grown, can she mate with the male, or does she need to be full grown?

thanks


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## Ian (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi joosa,

They will both need to be fully grown, mature adults. The male will need to have been adult for around 3 weeks prior to mating. I believe it is the same with the female.


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## jplelito (Oct 17, 2006)

Hello,

Any insect (with the exception of subimago mayflies, Order Ephemeroptera) with wings is an adult. Therefore if your female has wings, even if they do not cover her whole body, she is an adult.

Nymph mantids do have wing pads, but these are clearly just small buds in relation to the whole length of the insect. Also, they are not fully venated and have a much different consistency than adult wings.

In some mantids like Iris oratoria and P. agrionina, the common budwing mantid, the wings of the female do not ever cover the whole abdomen. This is normal for them.

Just keep her and the male well fed for a few weeks and then you can try mating them. Good luck!


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## yen_saw (Oct 17, 2006)

Joosa, I believed your IO female is an adult, female of this speices has shorter wing, you can see the pic in the following link

http://www.bugsincyberspace.com/iris_oratoria.html


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## joossa (Oct 17, 2006)

ok, I came home today and the female has just began making an ootheca!!!! I have not introduced the male to her.

I know that females can make several oothecas, does this mean that I can still mate the male with the female after she has laid her first ootheca???? Is it possible for her to make a second ootheca afer intoducing the male and mating her with him????

Help please!!!!!!!!!


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## Candy (Oct 17, 2006)

You can still mate the male with her and she can still produce a fertile ootheca! My female mantis is a wild caught and she had an ootheca shortly after we caught her. About a week after that we found a male and introduced him to her and they mated. She is now plumping up and looks as if she's going to have another ootheca very soon! Good luck!


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## joossa (Oct 17, 2006)

Yes!!!!!! I am so happy to hear this good news!!!!!

I hadn't introduced the male because I believed that the female was immature, now that I know otherwise I will definitley introduce the male in a couple of days.

One last question: is it okay to leave the female in the tank where she laid the ootheca for now?? Does she pose a threat to the ootheca itself (I know she will eat the young when they hatch, but I am only planning to leave her in there only for a short period of time)????

Thank you soo much for all the responses!!!


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## yen_saw (Oct 18, 2006)

Howdy! no worry the female IO will not attack or chew on the ootheca, you can still leave her with the ooth for the next 2-3 weeks but it is better to remove the ootheca into another container. Just make sure she finishes her food (especially crickets) if you decided to leave them (ooth and adult female) together. Was she already an adult when you found her? If that's true her ootheca is probably viable.


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## joossa (Oct 18, 2006)

Yeah, she was an adult when I found her. I have had her for about 2 weeks and she is eating well and is very responsive to movement in and out of her tank.

I found the male about a week ago during the night in my backyard when I was trying to catch moths for the female. I saw something fly to the bright light, thought it was a moth, and when I got close up there he was!

So... Can I still attempt to mate the male with my female, even though there is a possiblity that she already mated before I caught her???? I mean, there's no real way to tell if she had already mated when I caught her at this point right?????


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## yen_saw (Oct 18, 2006)

Ok, it is obvious that male IO was attracted by the female which is why you found the male IO as well. As it is near winter, there is a good chance that she had been mated already. To be sure, you can feed the female with lot of food and pair them up again, you can mate them as many times as you wish as long as the male survives on each occasion.


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## joossa (Oct 19, 2006)

Here's an update on how things are going...

I inroduced the male into the female's cage while she was eating a moth. (I feed her a moth because it takes a lot of time for her to eat one, making her distracted).

I placed the male right behind her as she started eating. He didn't move for a couple of minutes, just stared at her eating. Then, he took a step forward and striked at her abdomen. It was not harmful, since she is about twice his size. He also did not grip her when he striked, it was more of a hit. The female went into a semi defensive pose, and thats when I took him out.

So... I'm assuming the male is hungry. I have been feeding him less than the female. So, tommorow I am going to buy a dozen crickets, feed about 2 to each mantid on friday, 2 for each on saturday, and 2 for each on sunday. Then on Sunday afternnon I will atempt to mate them again.

Does this sound like a good plan? Do you notice any weird behavior from the male from what I described that happened?


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## yen_saw (Oct 19, 2006)

When the male is not interested with female it means he is not ready. I will just feed them until they lost interest with food (so they are full!) and pair them up the next day, don't have to stretch it over 3 days.


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