Interesting mating observation

[Rick]

Was going for a second round of mating with my H. Grandis'. The male mounted and the female grabbed him right away by the neck and bit his head. It was a fatal bite so I just let her have at it. She ate the male until about half of him was left. He was missing half his body but his abdomen was doing the mating moves.

I held him up so his abdomen could touch the females. After it did I let go and his abdomen stayed against the females. I left him alone seriously doubting they would connect for a successful mating since I have never seen a male that lost his head before connection actually connect and mate. Didn't think it was possible.

When I checked back the two were connected and mating in the normal manner. I will see if the rest of him can finish the job.

 

[nympho]

i didnt think that was possible either. thats its really interesting.

its funny but if id have known it may have been useful yesterday. i was trying to mate my last female, but she wouldnt let him approach. so i put him on her back, thinking he might get on with it but she attacked him again. this time their front legs got twisted together and i couldnt prise him away. eventually she bit his head and injured him too badly to save him.

so, i may have been able to mate them if id removed his thorax and let her eat that while he did the business with what was left of him :shock:

heres a pic of their last encounter, well his anyway lol

 

[Justin]

That's fascinating, I, like most, have heard reports of the male being eaten during copulation and the male still carrying on afetr his head was eaten but I've never heard of the head being eaten and then copulating.

 

[Rick]

That's fascinating, I, like most, have heard reports of the male being eaten during copulation and the male still carrying on afetr his head was eaten but I've never heard of the head being eaten and then copulating.

If they are already mating and they lose their head they go on mating like normal. But I have seen decapitated males' abdomens trying to mate. So thats what was happening and I just held him on her back and guided his abdomen to hers. When they touched it just went to the right spot and they connected. Then I let go and his body stayed still just as if he was whole. The mating lasted several hours.

 

[nympho]

hi rick

im wondering if this can only happen if mating behaviour has already been triggered. in my males case it hadnt, ie the male hadnt recognised the female and wasnt, er, horny, and he was just wandering off when she grabbed him.

it would have been interesting to see if his abdomen was kick started into mating movements by his injuries. after all, as its quite common for males to be eated in this way, so evolution may have programmed them to go into the mating movements when it happens.

 

[Rick]

I think their bodies go into the behavior during any traumatic injury. I had a male once that I stepped on by accident and his abdomen was making the same mating moves.

 

[yen_saw]

pretty amazing Rick, i can see that most of the male body part were gone except for the abdomen and it is still doing his "business". I have seen the samething happened to the adult male (when eaten by female) although he has no chance of mating. Seems like a natural instinct, like a gecko's tail twitching as soon as it seperated from the body.

 

[padkison]

I logged on to post this and saw Rick's post, so I'll append this to his.

My daughter raised a male chinese mantid she found in the yard from about 1". He molted out as an adult about 3 weeks ago. Last week we found a mature female in the yard. We fed her a couple roaches so she looked plump. Today we let them both go on my daughter's window curtain. This is what we found a couple hours later.

Unfortunately, we have another female that was waiting her turn. We'll just let her out into the garden to find her own mate/meal.

 

[yen_saw]

If your female is already an adult when you found her outside, she could have been mated already.

 

[padkison]

The female we released was raised from about 2 molts shy of adulthood.