How many times can a male be used?

[Jay]

Hi everyone,

I have searched through the forum and just haven't found out how many times an adult male can be used to mate with females. I am currently talking about M. Paykullii. Can a male be used as many times as needed or does his potency decrease over time? I have mated the male once with one female and twice with another. I also have another 2-3 females who will be ready to mate soon. I have some other males on the way but I have had a bit of trouble with the males falling during their last moult. :? Really strange.

Anyway, I will be happy for any advice you can give and hopefully plenty of oothecas will be on the way.

Thanks in advance.

-Jay

 

[Ian]

You will find males can be mated throughout most of their lives. Leave 3-4 weeks between each mating, for him to build back up his sperm, and then you should get a nice fertile mate out of him.

 

[julian camilo]

i think 3/4 weeks is maybe a bit too much, 1 week seems fine. i dont know for sure if this decreases fertility, though i doubt it.

 

[Ian]

Yea, I suppose its kind of personal preference. But I think it's better to wait a little longer and get a 100% fertile male, than risk having him eaten after an infertile mating.

 

[julian camilo]

also i imagine it depends on how fast the species develops, for example stuff like p.paradoxa that is a very slow developer would probably take longer to recover after mating than other species. i cant remember where i read this suggested but i made sense.

edit : i remember, it was in a thread on the terraristik insect forum. its not fact obviously but it did make alot of sense to me.

 

[Ian]

Yea...thats true actually...never thought of that!

 

[Rick]

I've used the same male several times before. I guess just keep using him as long as he will continue mating for you.

 

[Jay]

Thanks everyone for the replies. It had been a couple weeks so I felt that he was ready for another go at it. I tried him on one female and she didn't want anything to do with him so I tried him with another and she seemed quite ready to mate. I love it when they are so willing to mate.

On another note- I have heard that p. paradoxas are difficult to mate. Could this be that many people try to mate them too soon after their final moult? How many weeks should people wait to mate mantids that live longer, such as P. Paradoxas?

 

[yen_saw]

From my past experience, P. Paradoxa male needs a good 2 weeks before they are ready to mate, but heating up the environment usually help in accelerating the process.

Once my P. Agrionina male mated with 2 females within a week, both produced ootheca and the same hatching rate. So there is not a problem in mating a pair in short period of time as long as the male is not shying away and the female is willing to accept him.

 

[julian camilo]

this is what i thought. if the male is ready and willing, then it should be fine without any fertility issues. i dont think leaving it any longer after he is ready and willing would increase fertility, as it doesnt make sense to me why he would be willing and ready to mate while he wasnt able to fully... perform, if you will (full fertility). i think the fact that he is ready and willing to mate is synonymous with him being fully fertile.

 

[Ian]

Hmmm, strange, I had always been led to think that the longer he was left to regenerate, the better. Oh well, looks like my males will be having fun on a more regular basis