Attracting a male Tropidomantid Tenera

[collinchang635]

How do I attract a male Tropidomantid Tenera? I have a female Tropidomantid but i'm not sure how to attract a male. A friend told me to put her outside in a container with little holes and a male will come flying. I need more details on this subject.

 

[mrblue]

as there are no mantids native to uk, i have never had to/been able to do this. however i have read about people leaving female moths outside over night to attract males. this is usually done by leaving the females in a net cage. i think sometimes people use very coarse netting to allow the moths to mate through the netting. however the way mantids mate i doubt this would be possible so the best you could hope for would be to keep the female in a net container and then keep an eye on her container in case some males drop by. then catch the males yourself and try mating later. maybe even put a light near her? i dont know if this would help attract mantids but i would assume so.

 

[chrisboy101]

as there are no mantids native to uk, i have never had to/been able to do this. however i have read about people leaving female moths outside over night to attract males. this is usually done by leaving the females in a net cage. i think sometimes people use very coarse netting to allow the moths to mate through the netting. however the way mantids mate i doubt this would be possible so the best you could hope for would be to keep the female in a net container and then keep an eye on her container in case some males drop by. then catch the males yourself and try mating later. maybe even put a light near her? i dont know if this would help attract mantids but i would assume so.

sounds like that would work. who knows, it may attract other species

 

[idolomantis]

in france we used a UV light... a thats how i cought a male m. religiosa

(and you get junk... moths, flies etc)

 

[collinchang635]

A friend told me that my Tropidomantid will release pheromones into the air and that will make males come flying towards her. How will you know when that happens?

 

[Cindy]

Not sure if my female released pheromones to attract a male but it did appear a couple of weeks after her. But instead of flying to the balcony where she was, he flew into my study room! :lol:

Seriously, I think they are attracted by the lights at night.

 

[mrblue]

if you do a search on this forum for "calling" or maybe "pheromone release" you might find a recent thread that may be useful. i dont know if tropidomantis "calls" but i have seen (what i believe to be) calling/pheromone release from p.paradoxa and acromantis. these are poor pictures because if you get close or move the container to take a photo they will stop doing it.

it looks similar to when they are about to lay an ootheca but they do not move the abdomen like they do when about to lay an ootheca, it is a different activity i am sure. so if tropidomantis does "call" then it may look something like those pictures, maybe not.