# This is not what I wanted to wake up to today...



## Malakyoma (Jan 8, 2013)

Looks like I'm done breeding until the Griffins and Mesopteryx mature. Hopefully there were more connections than the one that I witnessed, although her most recent ooth looks in much better shape than her first.

*Note: She ate two and a half supers after laying two days ago. I don't think she did this because she was hungry.

R.I.P. Hercules. I'll miss you.


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## agent A (Jan 8, 2013)

are u crazy? i woulda fed her 15 or so superworms before introducing them :no:


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## Malakyoma (Jan 8, 2013)

agent A said:


> are u crazy? i woulda fed her 15 or so superworms before introducing them :no:


I said 2 and a half because she dropped the other half of it. Full.


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## agent A (Jan 8, 2013)

Malakyoma said:


> I said 2 and a half because she dropped the other half of it. Full.


full for that time, within a few hours she woulda wanted to eat more

they take a bit to get back to normal appetite after ooth laying


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## Malakyoma (Jan 8, 2013)

I did the same thing after her first ooth and had no problems. But now I know for next time to feed them full on every worm I can every hour after they lay.


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## fleurdejoo (Jan 8, 2013)

Ack! So sorry.


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## SilentDeviL (Jan 8, 2013)

Damn from the angle .... the male got grab from the front .. means .....no chance to connect .... to mate GG...RIP..


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## aNisip (Jan 8, 2013)

Sorry Michael, at least he passed while trying to pass on his genes...


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## Malakyoma (Jan 8, 2013)

Well the silver lining is they definitely mated, perhaps many times. I saw him jump on almost every evening and be separated by the next morning when I woke up. plenty of time for some fun. Her second ooth also looks much better than her first, which makes me believe that at least the one time I saw a good connection was successful.


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## sally (Jan 8, 2013)

Poor hercules, at least his legacy will live on


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## twolfe (Jan 8, 2013)

Sorry about that.

My Polyspilota aeruginosa males that I used for breeding were both eaten, too. My females were well fed, and they had uneaten flies and mealworms in the enclosure. I had one female that did not eat the male. It may be because she was missing one of her raptors and couldn't as easily grab him. My experience with this species has been that the males get eaten when either the females aren't ready, or the males are no longer needed because they already mated.

I hope your ooths are fertile!


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## Rick (Jan 9, 2013)

If they mated then it's not really that bad unless you have other unmated females of that species. Regardless of how satiated you think a female is, never assume she won't consume the male.


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## Malakyoma (Jan 9, 2013)

Rick said:


> If they mated then it's not really that bad unless you have other unmated females of that species. Regardless of how satiated you think a female is, never assume she won't consume the male.


I knew it was a very real possibility, but I do my best to make sure it doesnt happen. I bought this pair already adults to get my first experience with breeding before my P. griffinii and M. alata mature. I kept them together a long time, I saw him almost constantly on her back, I knew there was always a chance she'd eat him. The difference being I raise all my mantids as pets, so each loss hurts.


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## inuyasha78 (Jan 11, 2013)

So sorry, same thing happen to my only male taumantis and I don't even know if they connected, now I have 10 females and no male for them


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## Krissim Klaw (Jan 11, 2013)

If they already successfully connected multiple times I'm confused why you continued to leave them together?


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## Malakyoma (Jan 11, 2013)

Krissim Klaw said:


> If they already successfully connected multiple times I'm confused why you continued to leave them together?


I only ever saw one connection last any length of time. Its possible they connected every night and I didn't see it, but I was hoping to get more photos for proof that she's fertile.


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## yen_saw (Jan 11, 2013)

I have seen male with most of the thorax gone still able to pair up with female so if you could have intercepted the female from eating him whole, saved the 'bottom' part and placed it on top of female, it might still work, but since your female been mated, just let her have a full stomach maybe that's what Hercules wanted to do - nutrient to his next generation.


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## SilentDeviL (Jan 11, 2013)

If the ooth she laid does not look round or long and puff....I'll show u the 2 ooth i have that will be sent out week.. ... if it look very slim and not healthy ... then might not be fertile ... I have only lost 1 male .. infact 1 of my male attacked my only Green Marble .. now she is dieing the male attacked her face so she can eat is a slow death .. ... too bad she only give me 3 ooth before she had to go ...











the Ooth in Pic was laid yesterday here is a ooth laid last week .


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## Malakyoma (Jan 11, 2013)

The new one is puffy but its not as big as those. I think its because she chose to lay it somewhere that she was blocked from laying a big one. We'll see if the third one looks like those.


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