Ghost mating - connection time?

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kamakiri

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How long do they typically stay connected?

Thanks to Arkanis, I finally have an adult male (and a subadult male) for my two girls Liana and BatGirl. I didn't waste any time attempting the mating yesterday. The first try was with Liana. I introduced the two and had his antennae touch her, and he quicly mounted backwards and shortly spun around. I think he's a tad larger than she is. She was on a bouquet of fake flowers and in a few minutes started walking. His two back legs at some point were off and eventually she walked away leaving him behind.

Tried again a little later. I blew on them to urge him to move up a little forward on her. Checked on them frequently and at about 7 pm they were connected. Left for a party right after...came back at 11 pm and they were separated. Liana was at on the flowers and he was very low on the bouquet, but I was just surprised to see that they might have been done that quickly. A pair of limbata that connected at about 6pm last night are still connected as I type.

I know several posts suggest that ghosts need or prefer darkness to mate and these were under lights while we were out. Does 4 hours sound long enough?

 
agent A said:
4 hours should be long enough.
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Have you bred these? If you know for a fact they were connect for four hours it should be ok but I would mate them again. If you are not sure they connected then you must mate them again.

 
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Rick said:
Have you bred these? If you know for a fact they were connect for four hours it should be ok but I would mate them again. If you are not sure they connected then you must mate them again.
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I think 4 hours is enough for any species. btw Rick, why do you keep changing your avatar, I kinda liked the turtle.

 
agent A said:
I think 4 hours is enough for any species. btw Rick, why do you keep changing your avatar, I kinda liked the turtle.
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Ok and have you bred these? If not then don't offer advice.

 
Update:

I suppose the mating was successful. Liana started laying an ooth when I left for work this morning. 6 days after mating.

It's interesting the posture that is used when laying. Sorry about the cell phone quality of the shot:

click for larger

Liana_laying_092509_ghost_ooth_sm.jpg

 
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Didn't notice when it started, but I checked on her after lunch and I think the ooth is a blue-green or light turquoise when just finished. Looks like it might be holding about 20 eggs counting the zigs and zags of the zipper.

 
Nice picture. I just mated two of my ghosts the other day. They didn't stay connected for very long either, they actually disconnected about half way through, I blew on them a little and they reconnected pretty quickly. Overall they were together for about 4.5-5 hours, that's counting the time they weren't connected. I'm going to put them together again this weekend, just to be sure.

Best of luck with your ooth!

 
Sorry I am late with this one, u both did fine, they will be fertile so don't worry about that. I didn't answer because I thought with all the post someone else was gonna, so here I am, late but here.

The ooths will be fertile and in 6 or 7 weeks from now u will have babies, get the nurseries ready :p and don't forget grandma will buy extra ooths B)

 
Thanks to you both for the replies! I feel more confident that this first ooth will be fertile. :) Now I can prioritize getting my other female BatGirl mated next instead of re-mating Liana. Didn't go too well today as he seemed to prefer flying around the house instead :( Dang, he's a strong flier!

 
Wow. I'm pleased to say that Liana started her 2nd ooth this morning! It was only 5 days ago that she made the first.

Still haven't gotten BatGirl mated yet :( I've been focusing on all the limbata lately...

EDIT:

Tried again with BatGirl that evening 9/30. While the male was mounted, but not connected, she wouln't walk off the plastic grid onto the fake plants I use for husbandry... Stuck them in the tub while still on the grid/ladder. The did not appear to connect before I went to bed and the last attempt to get them on the fake plants resulted in him flying around the room. :(

 
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Finally...seems that BatGirl has finally mated. The male from Arkanis was mounted since 11 am yesterday, but they did not appear to connect through the whole day. He was still mounted when we went to bed and this morning he was dismounted on the other side of the room. First thing, I was a little worried that nothing happened since the valves were not up and there was no evidence that mating occured except for his presumed intentional departure. The good sign is that just now, BatGirl has been moving and gyrating her valves out of the ovipositor like Liana did the next morning after she was mated. *whew*. I'll post some pictures of the valves out later.

I'm expecting Liana to lay tomorrow if she holds to a five day laying interval.

 
Actually, Agent A was kinda right... mating does take a couple of hours in case of this species.

Remember to keep those ooths humid and don't go above 28C.

 
Yes, but he was probably just guessing.

agent A said:
I think 4 hours is enough for any species.
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I know for certain that 4 hours is not enough for all species. I have not had any of the limbata connected for less than 10 hours.

But thanks for confirming that it is enough time for ghosts. The ooths will not see more than about 25C or 77F or so. The hatching container is misted 1 or 2 times a day not directly.

 
kamakiri said:
Yes, but he was probably just guessing.I know for certain that 4 hours is not enough for all species. I have not had any of the limbata connected for less than 10 hours.

But thanks for confirming that it is enough time for ghosts. The ooths will not see more than about 25C or 77F or so. The hatching container is misted 1 or 2 times a day not directly.
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Use saturated coconut fibre or something like that. Those ooths really like it humid.

 
Kruszakus said:
Use saturated coconut fibre or something like that. Those ooths really like it humid.
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The first ooth (that these two females hatched from) I used a foam insert that was soaked (4" disk). My ambient humidity in the bug room was not more than 23% at the time. Lately it has been in the high 40% to low 50% range. I've only been soaking a 1" diameter foam plug, but making sure it stays wet day to day.

 

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