Is my Mantis squating on me??

[nicoledougherty]

I have a 6 month old male Chinese mantis that likes to squat on my husbands hand. Is this a mating behavior? It almost seems like he likes the feeling of the warmth it gives on his belly. After a while he will put his head down as if he is totally relaxed! My husband said he does not feel any pulsations or heavy breathing that he would expect if it were mating behavior. Any ideas?? -Nicole....

 

[azn567]

That is indeed strange behavior. Sometimes they start acting strangely in their final days.

I had a female of another species that started attacking thin air as if there was a rival mantis there.

6 months is very old for a male of any species. Many males of some species die off in barely over a month.

 

[crucis]

i've seen males do something like that as part of courtship behaviour.. but many mantids I've seen / kept may flatten themselves against a horizontal surface for no apparent reason. If i had to guess, i would say that they are feeling too exposed; that such behaviour is an attempt to lower their profile and minimise the chance of being spotted by a predator. I've seen them flatten themselves against a branch or tree trunk when I approach them in the wild... then again, i've also seem them do this to minimise the surface area that they expose to strong wind.

just my $0.02

 

[Rick]

Normal behavior. In the wild these will lower themselves close to whatever it is they're sittiing on in order to make themselves less visible. I've seen that a million times.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Plus his hand is warm and who doesn't want a warm butt! :tt2:

 

[lancaster1313]

If he is trying to hide he might flatten himself and even scoot to the other side of the surface he is on, to avoid anything that he thinks may be a threat.

If a male decides to mount, which happens often as well, he will usually bend his abdomen in an obvious way.

 

[Termite48]

I agree with Rick. If you watch insects of this type structure, even Beetles, at times will exhibit this behavior as if to lower their center of gravity to avoid a wind, another insect, or whatever. It is not out of the question that this behavior has something to do with trying to conserve body heat and the fact that the human hand gives off heat to a cooler object, this all makes sense.