Mating 2 males with the same female?

[patrickfraser]

never mind.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Well the concept of "stronger genes" isn't the issue ... actually I found that rather amusing. But then I have a biology background.

What I was hoping to find the answer to was whether, after a mating with 2nd male (or 3rd or whatever), would the resulting offspring be just his or a mix of both males or.... Not being familiar with the female's sperm storage capabilities, I was wondering if all sperm -- from however many males -- gets dumped into the same reservoir and as such gets mixed together, or whether there is some sort of compartmentalization by which one male's sperm is "isolated" from anothers and if, in that event, there is some sort of prioritization determining which male's sperm will be used. And while some may find this an odd query -- the world can be a very odd place.

I don't know if your biology background extends to entomology, but if so, you will know that , since entomologists don't want to kill mantids, they don't study them very much. However, there are several items of secondary evidence that if two males mate with one female, and this has been observed in the field and in the hobby, then there is a chance that some of the female zygotes, at least, will be fertilized by the second male. One of these is the fact that often the male will remain on the female for some time after fertilization, even though this action increases his chance of being eaten. The usual theory, supported in the case of other animals, is that he is preventing another male from copulating. Other evidence of fertilization by more than one male is provided by the strange case of the Australian genus Ciulfina, when male genitalia depend either to the right or the left. Research into whether one tendency or the other is more effectively reproductive is based on the recognition of multiple inseminations by different males.

 

[Malti]

Well the concept of "stronger genes" isn't the issue ... actually I found that rather amusing. But then I have a biology background.

What I was hoping to find the answer to was whether, after a mating with 2nd male (or 3rd or whatever), would the resulting offspring be just his or a mix of both males or.... Not being familiar with the female's sperm storage capabilities, I was wondering if all sperm -- from however many males -- gets dumped into the same reservoir and as such gets mixed together, or whether there is some sort of compartmentalization by which one male's sperm is "isolated" from anothers and if, in that event, there is some sort of prioritization determining which male's sperm will be used. And while some may find this an odd query -- the world can be a very odd place.

like bees you mean? I got a friend who raises them, and he notices placid/aggresive differences from time to time...that is when the brood changes "father"

 

[nebrakacinese]

Please enlighten me on your never mind, PM me at least maybe I can learn something from you.

 

[nebrakacinese]

Hello Mr. Patrick Fraser,just wanted to ask the question ,what does the slang mean ,,. never mind, means, to you. I had always taken the meaning of a negative connotation.Now I can see you have much more experience than I do.So maybe,you can PM me and tell me about this term.Maybe this will help me in my care of mantids.Be looking forward to be hearing from you.

 

[kitkat39]

I really only brought this up because I had a HUGE male Deroplatys Lobata that was noticeably bigger than all of the others and he also had an amazing looking shield. I had one female that was possibly already mated, but the rest were way too young to mate and I didn't want to take the chance to have him get eaten if he were to mount. I also didn't want to take the chance of mating him with one that was possibly already mated as well because it would have been bad if his genes could not pass on and with the chance of him getting eaten during mating, I would not have been a happy camper.

I wanted to pass on his genes and only his genes, really. Unfortunately, he mounted many times, but was never able to properly connect and eventually died of old age. :-/ Oh well..... Better luck next time....

 

[dragon]

I really only brought this up because I had a HUGE male Deroplatys Lobata ....

I'm glad you brought the topic up no matter what reason KK as I had wondered about this myself.

PY, thanks for the info! (Btw background in Bio & Zoology but no strict emphasis in Ent. Most of my knowledge in that area has been through reading/research & observation motivated by personal interest.)

Though I realize answering such a Q is likely not high on most researchers lists, it would be interesting (to me at least) to learn of a more definitive answer. Perhaps someone will develop a way to tag/mark (radioactively or otherwise) the sperm of one male -- without damaging said sperm -- and then see how many offspring of a double mated female carry those tags of that one tagged male. I know it's asking a lot but I can dream can't I? LOL

 

[nebrakacinese]

Please I'm not trying to be contraversial by comparing to other species.The guppy for instance,has to have so many litters before the sperm packets run dry from one male before the next male sperm packets will start siring, the next litter.The same is for chickens.I have raised each for a number of years.These animals of course are not mantids,And this may not apply at all to them,just some thing to think about.I hope this post does not draw any criticism that I recieved earlier in the thread.But I believe these principals apply to the species I mentioned,as I've seen it myself.