I have weird males

[Domanating]

For the first time in my life I have male Mantis Religiosa that don't seem very interested in mating. Worse, all 3 males i keep, have a problem.

This brown male is very active and so far the healthiest one. He already mated one female successfully and mounted but not connected with another.

Today i tried putting other 2 females near him. He seemed very interested at first in both of them but as soon as I bring my hand to move one of the females the male jumps on to my index finger and attempts to mate with it!

These 2 are more problematic. The younger male apparently should be a pre-subadult, but the wing buds tell another story. If that's the case, then in comparison with his brother on the left, he will skip one molt entirely. The real problem however is that the young male is like that for a month or maybe more and he is 4 days without eating.

The green adult doesn't seem to like females. Note that he has aproximately the same age as the brown male; old enough to mate and young enough to not have old age symptoms. I attempted to mate this green male with the exact same unmated females that i offered to the brown one. This one at first behaves just like a normal male when watching the female but then instead of mounting he grabs her and attempts to eat her. Two mating attempts were made with this one, same aggressive behavior and he was lucky to escape both attempts just with one back leg missing.

Plus he havent eaten properly for weeks and now he doesnt eat for 5 days. He watches with a lot of interested bugs that come close to him and sometimes moves towards them but when he gets really close he takes no action except with other mantids which he actually tries to grab and eat. It rejects honey and gutted prey just like the younger male.

Also, he seems to have some balance issue. His entire body always leans to the right when standing upright (Even when he had all legs present).

Both of the green males are the first ones i keep since they were born and they are the only survivors of the ant raid I talked about some time ago in the General forum. They both behave very sluggish and i'm no sure if that's because there really is a problem with them or it's just because they are used to me.

Since i never had any problem with mating in the past, destiny decided to give me 3 different problems at the same time, lol.

 

[sinensispsyched]

I've had the Aggressive Male Syndrome before, and I don't know why it occurred.

 

[Precarious]

Once they get into mating mode they will hang on to a finger if given the chance. At least you know that means they are ready to mate. Just need to redirect that energy.

 

[Sticky]

Were they stung by the ants? Maybe the attack left them with some slight brain injury that is now showing itself?I will look for the attack post.

My old mantis Sticky stopped eating bugs and I fed him a lot of beepollen and water and honey. It kept him alive for 2 months. It sounds like these guys might be destined to be pets and not breeders.

 

[Domanating]

The ants here don't have stings. These survivors were not bothered by the ants, otherwise they would be dead already.

Well aparently the young male molted to adult today. That's a good thing. Lets hope that in 1 or 2 weeks he's willing to mate.

 

[Ntsees]

I keep my adult mantids inside where it just receives room light. Before I breed my religiosa or any other mantid, I usually put my males outside on plants to get some sunlight for a while. The sunlight helps warm them up so they are active, which is the purpose because I don't want a sluggish male attempting to mate with a female - I want the male to get into position fast and to get to it so the female won't have a chance if she attempts to eat him. In my experience with male religiosas, I've always had males that were willing to mate. They've tried to mate with my finger and they've always tried to mate with my female Iris oratoria.

 

[MantidLord]

I keep my adult mantids inside where it just receives room light. Before I breed my religiosa or any other mantid, I usually put my males outside on plants to get some sunlight for a while. The sunlight helps warm them up so they are active, which is the purpose because I don't want a sluggish male attempting to mate with a female - I want the male to get into position fast and to get to it so the female won't have a chance if she attempts to eat him. In my experience with male religiosas, I've always had males that were willing to mate. They've tried to mate with my finger and they've always tried to mate with my female Iris oratoria.

I second everything Ntsees said, including the males trying to mate with female I. oratoria.