Feeling pretty dumb

[mantisboy]

Like everyone I do some pretty bonehead things from time to time, things which are rather embarrassing especially for a man my age. My females are full grown so to speak along with my 2 brown/tan males. So the other day when I caught a 3rd mantid I thought, "Oh looks just like my males, same size, same color, must be male. Not checking the bottom of it's abdomen I didn't think twice and place it into a housing. After a few days I tried to breed it with one of my females, it even mounted one of my females so-to-speak twice. I went to clean it's housing today and just happened to notice....it's a female. :blink: Ugh...

Feeling pretty dumb right now. As for body size she looks just like my males which are so much smaller than my 2 females. I just went under the assumption that this time of the year the females were considerably larger than the males....guess not. So in retrospect I'm guessing that she wasn't mounting the other female as much as she was trying to get out of the tote and I kept redirecting her toward the other female. Indeed I am an idiot!

 

[Seattle79]

Like everyone I do some pretty bonehead things from time to time, things which are rather embarrassing especially for a man my age. My females are full grown so to speak along with my 2 brown/tan males. So the other day when I caught a 3rd mantid I thought, "Oh looks just like my males, same size, same color, must be male. Not checking the bottom of it's abdomen I didn't think twice and place it into a housing. After a few days I tried to breed it with one of my females, it even mounted one of my females so-to-speak twice. I went to clean it's housing today and just happened to notice....it's a female. :blink: Ugh...

Feeling pretty dumb right now. As for body size she looks just like my males which are so much smaller than my 2 females. I just went under the assumption that this time of the year the females were considerably larger than the males....guess not. So in retrospect I'm guessing that she wasn't mounting the other females as much as she was trying to get out of the tote and I kept redirecting her toward the other female. Indeed I am an idiot!

<_<

 

[MantidLord]

Could've been worst. You could've lost one of them. A female or a male.

 

[Rick]

Once you get a little experience you won't even have to look at the abdomen to tell gender. I can tell just by looking at them from a distance. It can be easy to confuse nymphs, not adults.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Course if old like me, eye site is getting pretty bad, I mistaked a skunk for the cat the other day! :lol: NOT!

 

[LauraMG]

:lol: I've wrongly identified almost every single mantid I have! Don't feel so bad! Like others have said, at least you didn't lose one of them!

 

[Schloaty]

As long as THEY can tell, that's what matters!