A New Way of Sexing

[agent A]

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.

 

[massaman]

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!

 

[agent A]

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.

 

[idolomantis]

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

 

[agent A]

Why bother sexing before L5?

uh, to name them. :lol:

 

[idolomantis]

Why bother naming them...

 

[agent A]

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.

 

[massaman]

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!

 

[Ntsees]

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).

 

[bassist]

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.

 

[agent A]

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

 

[bassist]

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

Six is the least you want if you plan on breeding.

 

[agent A]

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

 

[Sneaky123]

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!!

 

[Rick]

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.

 

[Norlin]

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

 

[gripen]

It's not so new any more lol.

 

[MandellaMandy123]

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.

 

[Norlin]

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