Female or male?

[Bumma]

Chinese mantis L3

Thoughts? I feel like it's a lady... if that's the case, then they are ALL ladies. And they ate all the men. 

 

[Rick]

[No message]

 

[Ocelotbren]

I think it looks like a male actually.  The guide Rick posted is what I used when determining the genders of my Chinese mantids but to be honest I don't think I was sure until L5.  At L4, I thought I had two males, and in the next molt it became clear that one was a female.  So it's possible you'll have to wait a bit more to be sure.

 

[Teamonger]

Chinese Mantises are really hard to impossible to tell at lower instars. I think its not til L4 or L5 that you can even use the segment counting as both genders have the same number up til that point. At L4/L5 (I am not sure which) the last segments finally fuse together in the females. I had a heck of a time sexing mine until they got to L6. 

 

[Ocelotbren]

Chinese Mantises are really hard to impossible to tell at lower instars. I think its not til L4 or L5 that you can even use the segment counting as both genders have the same number up til that point. At L4/L5 (I am not sure which) the last segments finally fuse together in the females. I had a heck of a time sexing mine until they got to L6. 

Aha so I guess that's what happened to me then.  I was quite sure I had two males until that next molt.

 

[Mystymantis]

I think it's a male. But like everyone else said it is really hard to tell until the later instars. But to me it looks like a male.

 

[Serle]

I have three L5's that all look like that , I agree with teamonger .....  S