Breeding the Rhombos

[PlayingMantis]

I am pairing up my shields again tonight - both mantids have been adults for 5 weeks. The male is very eager to mate, actually, yesterday, while I was placing the female in front of him, he jumped on my finger and attempted to mate with my finger. He did that three times.

Then he finally saw the girl and jumped on...the wrong way. She was startled so I shoved a plastic thing (I don't know even know what that is, it just came from a bouquet) to her claws and she clutched it like it was the most delicious dessert.

Here is a pic of my silly couple:

I was tired and didn't feel like staying up to monitor the mating so I separated them and tried again today. At 7pm, he jumped on readily. Now 5 hours later there hasn't been a connection. Once or twice, the male suddenly turned around so his head was facing her rear, and I blew a few puffs of air and he remembered to switch to the correct position.

I need to go to sleep soon, but I'm afraid to leave the two together without having them connect first.

 

[Rick]

The male jumping on backwards is pretty common. I believe it may be an attempt to protect himself.

 

[HungryGhost]

Good luck on your next try!

 

[sally]

Good luck

 

[PlayingMantis]

Thanks guys!

I tried breeding my mantises every day, but to no luck for the last two days. On the bright side, the male instantly notices any females and always seems to jump on - whether correctly or incorrectly - in just a minute or two. But he took a particular liking, or should I say, infatuation, with Athena, my oldest and the most vicious Rhombodera to ever step foot inside my house. As a youngster, Athena enjoyed threatening me, and she even ate her sister.

I mostly feared for the male's life, but I fed everybody up very well and let him have his way with Athena. Here was the problem:

He would jump on the wrong way, correct himself fairly quickly, but after several minutes, he would switch back to the "head-to-butt" position. I wonder if he is nervous and feels the sudden need to protect his head every now and then? Or he would ride on the female for hours and do nothing. Or he'd get distracted if I come near - he would jump to my hand and try to mate with my finger again.

Today, I fed all my mantids until they were full, and tried again. After he mounted, I left them in my living room with the lights off. Athena seemed a little mellow today, perhaps she had a bit too much to eat. They mounted at around 10pm and I checked at 11pm. Lo and behold, she ate him. I guess eating crickets, super worms, mealworms, and blue bottles wasn't enough?

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Just kidding, she didn't eat him...or should I say, yet? They connected! Wow. I didn't know they were capable of that, given the amount of brain-dead behavior they've been showing me. Well, this is good. I am going to sleep, and I don't want to wake up to a pair of wings and legs on the floor.

For the record, the temp is 80-83F and the humidity is from 45-55%. Mating started at 11pm on 6/3/14. The mantises are free-ranging in the living room.

 

[sally]

Great news

 

[HungryGhost]

That's my boy!

 

[PlayingMantis]

Haha, an awesome little guy, isn't he?

I woke up at 8 and saw they were connected. I set up my iPad and placed it in front of the couple so I could run the "live webcam" app. I went to work and used my iPhone to monitor what's going on on my iPad. They were mating. But at 11am, my iPad ran out of battery, so the webcam is no more!

I was in the dark for the rest of the day, wondering if my mantids were still connected or was the male eaten. I wanted to get home but I couldn't, because of all the work.

I got home and the female was there, and the male was nowhere to be seen. No pile of wings and legs, that's a good sign. I finally found him up on the curtains, with a smug look on his face.

This is the spermatophore, right? And that's good, right?

Also, the male needs to recharge his...ehh...batteries...quickly so he can mate with my second female, who is getting fat and hopefully not on the verge of laying an infertile ooth. How many days should I give him to rest? A week?