First ever orchid pairing

[Predatorhousepet]

Day 20 since male hopped off, female still hasen't pooped out an ooth yet... Might I benefit in trying to get a new male and pair with her again? or do I wait more and maybe change up its conditions to aid in egg laying.

You can attempt another mating but the female is probably already fertile. Some females lay only a week after mating but 20 days is not too long, it can take up to 6 weeks sometimes. As long as the current conditions are in the range of 65% to 75% humidity and 75° to 85°F you shouldn't need to change them (they'll still do well in 60 to 80% humidity and 70 to 90°F but that's the ideal you want to strive for.) Provide lots of natural sticks to lay on as well as some popsicle sticks on the ceiling and walls.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

I coaxed my guy off momma's back once he disconnected. Anything wrong with that? Should I let them hop off on their own? 

No, that's fine. I usually wait until the male hops off on his own because he will connect, rest a bit (could be several hours) then go again many times over the course of several days to as long as a week. At some point he'll get hungry and hop off on his own so I usually wait until then but of you are worried about not being around when he decides to dismount and the female eating him you can coax him off after you confirm a good long connection was made.

 

[hysteresis]

Is there benefit to several connections, over the long one he made today? 

My thought was to breed the other two, then swap out males. If the other survives, of course. 

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Is there benefit to several connections, over the long one he made today? 

My thought was to breed the other two, then swap out males. If the other survives, of course. 

I don't know that one connection isn't sufficient, it should be. You can mate her again with the same male but mating her with another male is even better, that way there is more diversity in the genes of the offspring. Genetic diversity is important because it helps maintain the health of the population by including alleles that can be valuable in resisting disease and other stresses.

I did find this paper about praying mantis reproduction for a different species, Ciulfina klassi, but it says that males that do the deed more quickly have more efficient sperm transfer than ones that take a long time.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20640553?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

There's also this study

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0124209

They predicted that males would allocate more sperm to healthier females than less healthy but they found that wasn't the case, the males gave it their all regardless of the quality of female.

 

[hysteresis]

Here's the the rub. Two sisters, two brothers!

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Here's the the rub. Two sisters, two brothers!

That's ok. Even brothers from the same ooth will have slightly different genes from each other. If they come from different eggs they are not identical twins. (An ooth contains many different fertilized eggs.) However, I don't know how common or if it's even possible for identical twins to occur in a single egg inside an ooth. I'd love to be able to examine mantis DNA and find out but I don't have a lab at my disposal anymore.

 

[hysteresis]

I'd love to be able to examine mantis DNA and find out but I don't have a lab at my disposal anymore.

No please. Use mine.