Egyptians are mating right now!

[cloud jaguar]

sorry no pics for you voyeurs, but i assure you it is quite titilating all the same.

So my wife and i have some mature egyptian pygmies and they are a bit over 2 weeks since they became adults. I put our early male "gimpy wing" into the enclosure or our first and most voracious egyptian maiden "cleopatra." They have both been fed recently and cleo looked very very plump - as with ooth or just overeaten like crazy.

She lives in a heavily fake foliaged net enclosure 12" by 12." I put the male gimpy wing in there then realized they would probably be better of in a 2' net cage we have also heavily fake foliaged. Just as I started to unzip the 12" enclsure with both mantids in there, i noticed that the female was looking at the male with her arms spread out yet kind of in a down non-threatening position looking back over her shoulder with that "come hither" stare some of you may know too well.

Anyways, my wife was helping with the cage unzipping as i reached in to get the mantids when we both noticed that they were already mating! They seem to be having an ok time of it so we decided best not to disturb them. I do believe the male has some several places to hide including 3 full size fake roses. Hopefully he will be ok.

They started mating at 10:35 pm and are still mating at 11:51 pm. We are about ready to go to bed so tomorrow morning i will retrieve gimpy wing out of there and retire him back to the stud farm for some much needed r&r and gin and tonics.

We are excited to have raised these egyptians from an ooth (thanks Laemia!) and to finally have mated them. Hopefully we will have some fertile ooths!

~Arkanis

 

[Katnapper]

Sounds great, Arkanis... congrats on the quick coupling! I have some M. paykulli's from Lameia's ooths too, but mine are wittle itty bitty fellers yet! Good luck on the breeding!

Edit: PS... I'm jealous! I wish my husband shared my interest and we could work with them together like you two do! He will barely even come in the bug room without me dragging him in there to see this or that very occasionally. It has to be something really exciting like a hatching for me to even bother asking him to look. And even then, while I'm all excited and in awe, he'll say something like, "Is that it? Hmmm.... OK. Bugs being born." <_< :angry:

 

[hibiscusmile]

Good job, u guys are coming right along! I like his name "gimpy wings"! and Kat, your hubby sounds like a lot of hubbies so dont feel bad

 

[Rick]

That's all those do. They breed like rabbits.

 

[hibiscusmile]

They also eat like rabbits, continusely!

 

[cloud jaguar]

UPDATE - i woke up at 3:00 am and checked the mantids and they were on opposite ends of the enclosre cleaning themselves. I know they mated at least from 10:35 pm until 1:00 am when I went to bed so I expect that was probably enough to make fertile ooths. I removed the male who is doing fine.

Should we mate them again or wait and use a different male?

 

[ismart]

You could remate them in a few days, or use a different male to mix it up a bit. She is most likey fertile from just mating once. I usally do it at least twice to ease my mind.

 

[Rick]

UPDATE - i woke up at 3:00 am and checked the mantids and they were on opposite ends of the enclosre cleaning themselves. I know they mated at least from 10:35 pm until 1:00 am when I went to bed so I expect that was probably enough to make fertile ooths. I removed the male who is doing fine. Should we mate them again or wait and use a different male?

Mate her again after she lays a few ooths. It is probably not needed but can't hurt. If you do it before that you're wasting your time and risking losing your male.