Here is a picture of two of my Carolina mantises, Sanya the female, and Aster the male, mating. Aster jumped right onto her and started mating within 2 minutes. It was pretty cool. And the next day she laid her ootheca.
Carolina mating
- Thread starter Mystymantis
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Congrats. 
The ooth she laid the next day will most likely be infertile, as the eggs had developed already (what happens when the mantid becomes gravid) and did not get fertilized. Her next ooth however should be fertile.
The ooth she laid the next day will most likely be infertile, as the eggs had developed already (what happens when the mantid becomes gravid) and did not get fertilized. Her next ooth however should be fertile.
Thanks, so the egg case she laid will be infertile? Maybe I am wrong, but I thought that the eggs get fertilized as they pass out of the female, not as they are developing. Of course it does make since for the eggs to be fertilized as they are developing. And maybe it depends on the species too. I have never actually studied exactly how the eggs get fertilized, and can't seem to find any information on it exactly either, though probably should so that I don't have failed infertile egg cases. Even though I have been mating mantises for a few years now, with most successes but some failures. At least her next ootheca's will be fertile.
But I have a question about keeping mantis ootheca's but I will post it in a different place since its not a picture.
But I have a question about keeping mantis ootheca's but I will post it in a different place since its not a picture.
From my experience from breeding Stagmomantis carolina and Tenodera sinensis primarily, if the female is gravid before she is mated the ooth has always been infertile. This tends to be the case even up to about a week before a female lays her ootheca, if a male mates during that time the current ooth is infertile but subsequent ooths will be fertile. As your female laid her ooth the next day, from my experiences there is no chance for it to be fertile.
Regarding how/when the sperm is used to fertile the eggs I can not honestly answer. I did some searching online, even for arthropods in general, without any details of the actual process (just the mating process before and the laying process was talked about at all). Perhaps someone will respond that knows for sure, and can provide a link to the documentation.
All I can say is the female is given a spermatophore from the male, and if she stores the male's sperm the leftovers/casing are ejected by her within a day or less and can be commonly found in the habitat. At which point the female is fertile for the rest of her life, but many keepers breed them again to ensure it was successful. I have seen some though where the female rejected the spermatophore, and the entire spermatophore was found in her habitat, shortly after the male disconnected.
If you are curious what a spermatophore looks like, search the forum using the word as there are topics with photos.
Regarding how/when the sperm is used to fertile the eggs I can not honestly answer. I did some searching online, even for arthropods in general, without any details of the actual process (just the mating process before and the laying process was talked about at all). Perhaps someone will respond that knows for sure, and can provide a link to the documentation.
All I can say is the female is given a spermatophore from the male, and if she stores the male's sperm the leftovers/casing are ejected by her within a day or less and can be commonly found in the habitat. At which point the female is fertile for the rest of her life, but many keepers breed them again to ensure it was successful. I have seen some though where the female rejected the spermatophore, and the entire spermatophore was found in her habitat, shortly after the male disconnected.
If you are curious what a spermatophore looks like, search the forum using the word as there are topics with photos.
I found an ejected spermatophore for one of my female Chinese mantises I mated a few days ago. But I was wondering if the female doesn't eject it does that mean she is not fertilized? Because I mated a different female and couldn't find the leftover sperm case thing.
I also didn't find any for my Carolina mantis female but maybe I missed it?
How soon should I re-mate a female after her first mating?
I also didn't find any for my Carolina mantis female but maybe I missed it?
How soon should I re-mate a female after her first mating?
If you find a rather large spermatophore she rejected it, otherwise they appear incomplete and just small discarded remains of it. Sometimes it is hard to impossible to find them, I'm not sure if some females will eat the remains or if the leftover spermatophore quickly dries up and gets lost in the frass and such in the habitat.
As you suspect she didn't get fertilized you can try again in about a week. Of course you could try again in 2-3 days afterwards if you want and feel it is necessary to hurry her along. Otherwise, most keepers will breed their females again after they lay 3-4 ooths (if mating was successful) - that ensures their ooths are fertile and helps make larger ooths in the latter ooths too.
Ok, thank you I will try to mate her again.
Ranitomeya
Well-known member
In mantises and many other arthropods, sperm is stored in the spermatheca of the female and the spermatheca branches off the oviduct. Eggs of arthropods are not fertilized until they pass down the oviduct where the spermatheca is. That's why even insects that give live birth still have to lay their eggs before bringing them back into the abdomen. If there is sperm in the spermatheca, eggs laid will be fertilized--the fertility of eggs laid does not depend on whether or not the eggs were produced before or after mating. There's probably something else going on if you're experiencing fertility issues for the first ootheca produced after mating.
The male produces a spermatophore which holds the sperm and provides nutrition for the female. In some insect species like in katydids, the spermatheca can be a significant percentage of the males' total mass prior to mating, and contains proteins, fats, and minerals that help the female produce eggs. The female mantis may or may not eat the spermatophore and finding the discarded spermatophore does not mean mating was successful--it just means she didn't eat it.
The male produces a spermatophore which holds the sperm and provides nutrition for the female. In some insect species like in katydids, the spermatheca can be a significant percentage of the males' total mass prior to mating, and contains proteins, fats, and minerals that help the female produce eggs. The female mantis may or may not eat the spermatophore and finding the discarded spermatophore does not mean mating was successful--it just means she didn't eat it.
