African Mantis breeding

bruty2fruity · Jun 19, 2006

this week i saw my male ount my female and copulate for ages, i literally went out and came back and they were still going... they sepperated in the morning the male flew away n hid, the female was a tad sluggish but now is moving like she's got ants in her pants. i was wondering a few questions.

how long after adulthood does it take for an african mantis (centralis) to lay an ootheca regardles of it being fertile or not.

seccond question how long after my female has laid her ooth can i re-mate her with the male.

ive trawled this site and read books and people say usually about 3/4 weeks i just wanted someone with a bit of experience with this spieces to just confirm of shed any more light on the subject.

thanks in advance

yen_saw · Jun 19, 2006

Usually, the african mantis takes about 2-4 weeks to lay her first ooth after mating, and after that it very much depends on the amount of food you offer her. With plenty of food, she can go for an ooth every 3 weeks. I have never re-mate any of my african mantis before and the last 1-2 ooth (usually the 5th or 6th ooth) still hatched out 100 nymphs at least. You don't want to be swarmed by thousands of little hungry mouth anyway.

bruty2fruity · Jun 19, 2006

so the one of mating is enough. thanks for your help. im fairly new to this so expect some fairly standard questions in the future, cheers

dylandobell · Jun 19, 2006

hey, you can expect it to be about two weeks between ooths on the larger mantids. more mantis, more time. mate them as often as you like if you have the males for it. often after mating males die for no apparent reason. 1 mating is usually good for about 5 ooths.

cheers,

dylan

Rick · Jun 19, 2006

Two to three weeks. They are all different and it will make an ooth when it does. You don't need to mate her after every ooth. One mating will suffice for at least three ooths. I usually mate after two ooths. Males don't die after mating either fyi.