Dones anyone find that males are more "people friendly"?

[Psychobunny]

Seems like it's always the males that want to come out, land and crawl around on me,

and explore.

My viridis male will fly on me as soon as I open his cage and climb up to my shoulder

where he will stay as I go about my business around the house.

He seldom flys off of me to check something out, but when he does, he gets right back

on me again.

I have a male lineola that is also very friendly, in fact, all the sphodro males are pretty docile.

The females on the other hand get huffy when I stick my hand (or stick) to pick them up, but

they do eventually get on my hand and are no longer frightened.

So, has anyone noticed any difference in "friendlyness" between the sexes?

Is it just that the males are better at flight and are used to roaming for females?

 

[minard734]

It seems to me that it's the other way around. At least for Stagmomantis and Tenodera.

 

[crucis]

yup i realise their personalities are generally different... But i dunno, for me males tend to freak out easily / get too hyped up, and females tend to be too content keeping still (and just get defensive if disturbed). The 'friendliest' mantids I've raised have been the ones from either sex with personalities which were good compromises between these extremes. But maybe it's a species thing as well (i.e. males of some species are generally 'friendlier' than those of others)...

 

[ismart]

I would say the males are a lot more hyper. I would not go by sex to rate friendliness. I find each have there own little personalities, Whether it be male or female.

 

[Samanthathamantis]

I have no experience with a male mantis as I have only had one and she was a female but I can tell you she was very friendly and seemed to love people. As soon as I put my hand in the cage she would climb it and want to "hang out" with me as much as possible. In fact, she did not like to go back to her cage. She loved hanging out on my husband's shoulder and my 5 year old would let her climb on his hands as well.

 

[mantisboy]

My experience is limited to only M Religiosa (Euros) and the males are pretty goofy. Unlike their female counterparts which are laid back and friendly, the males hyper and skittish. I used to keep a stable of males for breeding, each in their own housing but this year I changed that. All the males were caught in 1 week and placed in a single housing, mated, thanked, then released. At one point I had 8 males in a single 12" x 10" x 10" housing they never fought or even flared at each other. They stayed out of each others way, fed and hung out on the branches staring at each other.

It makes sense though, in a world where being too slow and laid back means facing decapitation can't really blame them for being a little hyper.

Last year I had 6 or 7 and it was fun to put them all on a plant and watch them check each other out. They also seemed to enjoy flying around and stretching out their wings. Wild males of this species don't fare well in housing for extended periods of time. They freak out and start scratching at the housing which I believe places a lot of stress and fatigue on them.

The females are great though, so I decided this year that they would get 100% of my attention. My 2 largest have now passed, but my last and smallest is doing great. She just laid another ooth and is still highly mobile. Seems like they lose a lot of mobility a few weeks before their life cycles ends. The way they clutch on to you is much harder, gone is the fluid and grace they once had.

 

[meaganelise9]

In my limited experience, I'd agree with Psychobunny, but I've only had the one male and don't have females of that species to make an accurate comparison. I do typically choose male cats though.. haha

 

[PhilinYuma]

I'm not an expert on mantis personalities, but any student of American literature (you can cover most of it in an afternoon) will remember the famous male mantis of Frederick, Maryland during the Civil War. As Stonewall Jackson marched through the town on the Maryland campaign, a (?) Carolina mantis appeared on a verandah protesting the idea of introducing Chinese mantids into the US, on the grounds that they would encourage opium smoking. Jackson was famously unimpressed:

"Who thinks there is sense in yon green head

"Is out of his mind. March on," he said.

I hope that that helps.

 

[Psychobunny]

LOL!! yeah, my mantids are always trying to get me stoned on crack!!

Old habits die hard!!

 

[sinensispsyched]

My male chinese that I raised from an ooth is SUPER friendly, although for the first (two?) weeks he was very jumpy. However, he soon adapted to captivity and became nicer.

Contrarily, the two wild male chinese mantises that Ismart gave me were very jumpy, but they mellowed over the course of a week.

 

[dlemmings]

i have one male ghost, one female ghost and on female sp. lineola

the male wants out every time I open his enclosure to toss in food...so my limited experience confirms you observation. i have never been influenced to try opium by my mantids however the do like to mist my enclosure with a nice single malt scotch!! :clown: