Acontista multicolor: coupling problems

[Alessandro]

Hello, I've 4 Acontista multicolor, one adult female, two adult males and one sub-adult nymph..

I put the male into the container of my female.. And he suddently jumped on her and showed the red wings.. Fantastic! But then I waited a long long time but nothing: the male didn't "attached" his abdomen to hers.. He only stayed on her.. He tried to fold his abdomen to search the genitalia of the female, but they attached for about.. 5 seconds and then, nothing. My female, the next day, has done one ooth.. And it's very very strange.. Isn't it?

I've hear that this specie is partenogenic, is it true? even if it's true, why they didn't couple? I can't understand! I hope that the ooth is mellow..

And another question: can I try to make couple the two now? Even if the female has already done the ooth?

P.S.: Please, sorry me for my english, I'm Italian and I can't speak english very well.. I hope with all my heart that you can understand me

 

[Rick]

The ooth she laid will not be fertile if she was not mated. I have not heard of parthenogenesis with this species, but I may be wrong. When your male sits there and does nothing blow a quick breath onto him or lightly and gently shake the container. That can stimulate him to try to connect again. Or you can use tweezers and gently squeeze his thorax. If none of that works try again later.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I would just retry later, sometimes they want to but are not quite ready.

 

[Alessandro]

Ok, thank you.. I'll try to mate them again, the next week..

Thank you for the good answer!

I'd like to ask another thing.. One of my males, I don't know how, doesn't walk normally! I suspect that he broke his tarsuses.. But I can't understand how ! So he can't climb on the top of the container, where he stayed normally.. And I gave you a fly some days ago but he didn't eat it! I'm really worried because if he'll continue to don't eat I'll must enter the food in his mouth by myself! And I don't know how to do it..

 

[dgerndt]

You can stick a needle through the fly/cricket/roach (whatever you like to feed him) and hold it up to his mouth. You can also use tweezers or long forceps.

 

[Alessandro]

You can stick a needle through the fly/cricket/roach (whatever you like to feed him) and hold it up to his mouth. You can also use tweezers or long forceps.

Ook thanks

 

[yen_saw]

......I've hear that this specie is partenogenic, is it true? ...

I had a female reproduce via parthenogenesis before. The next generation was all females and they too reproduced parthenogenetically. Each ootheca only yield 5-10 nymphs over a period of 1-2 week. But it is not very common for this species.

 

[Alessandro]

Ok, thank you, we will see