never trust women (mantises)

[wuwu]

since one of my female p. wahlbergii was around 3 weeks old as an adult, i attempted to mate her. i placed the male behind her and he showed no interest whatsoever. but when she started moving a bit, he showed some attenna action so that was a good sign. slowly she turned around and now the two were facing each other, but i didn't sense any sign of aggression from her so i wasn't concerned for his safety. then she started waving her arms, similar to the way orchids do sometimes, and shaking her stomach. aww how cute, she's doing some sort of mating dance. she did this for a few minutes while the male just stood there, motionless. then out of nowhere, she strikes him and grabs ahold of him. luckily i was there to rescue him as he is my only male!

anyway, my point is, i thought i could trust her since i can pretty much tell when a mantis is getting ready to strike. her body language showed peace, but i guess her mood can change in a split second.

 

[Rick]

Sounds like she went into a threat posture which is not peaceful.

 

[wuwu]

Sounds like she went into a threat posture which is not peaceful.

it was definitely not a threat posture. i know what that looks like. like i said in my post, it was arms waving back and forth, which is nothing like a threat posture. the arms alternate moving back and forth, almost like they're dancing.

i've only observed this behavior in p. wahlberggis, orchids, and i remember them showing this behavior in boxer mantids in the discovery channel show on mantids. they said this behavior was used to let her mantids know they are mantids and not food. i'm not sure if they said specifically if that was just for boxer mantids, i'll have to watch that part again later to double check. but i've also seen my orchids and p. wahlberggis do this when there was no mantis around, so their purpose for doing it might be different than what they described for the boxer mantids.

 

[Rick]

Sounds like she went into a threat posture which is not peaceful.

it was definitely not a threat posture. i know what that looks like. like i said in my post, it was arms waving back and forth, which is nothing like a threat posture. the arms alternate moving back and forth, almost like they're dancing.

i've only observed this behavior in p. wahlberggis, orchids, and i remember them showing this behavior in boxer mantids in the discovery channel show on mantids. they said this behavior was used to let her mantids know they are mantids and not food. i'm not sure if they said specifically if that was just for boxer mantids, i'll have to watch that part again later to double check. but i've also seen my orchids and p. wahlberggis do this when there was no mantis around, so their purpose for doing it might be different than what they described for the boxer mantids.

H. Mem do something similar. They flair their wings, flatten their abdomens and turn sideways while rocking back and forth. It's their threat posture when they are trying to make themselves look larger due to being fearful.

 

[yen_saw]

I have seen the arm waving behaviour often in PW, especially adult female. This species gets upset easily, and waving arm is like a warning sign like "Not messing around with me". I have this adult female which waves her arm as soon as i approach her, she will stare right straight at me in any angle. Spooky!

 

[OGIGA]

luckily i was there to rescue him as he is my only male!

Once a mantis grabs something, how do you make them let go?

 

[Rick]

luckily i was there to rescue him as he is my only male!

Once a mantis grabs something, how do you make them let go?

I just grab them by the thorax and generally they let go. If need be just pry their front legs open.

 

[wuwu]

you have to be quick though! once she delivers the fatal bite, he's done for.

 

[yen_saw]

Whenever i put a pair in the same cage for mating purpose, i always have a long tweezer and water spray bottle ready. If anything went wrong, just spray the water towards the fighting pair (which appears to "cool" them down) and separate them quickly. As wuwu said, 5 sec delay could cause the male's life especially when the female gets a bite on the head.

 

[sk8erkho]

Definitely the water bottle method in my experience. I keep it on stand by when ever I have them out for air or feeding, the older ones. And sometimes when they finally make eye contact at some point, it could get ugly as with my first loss due to a similar experience. Man, when they hook up you only have milliseconds to get them apart or someone could "lose an eye" or a life! If it weren't for my trusty spray bottle there would have been lots of these little close calls. As when the final ooth hatched and they were all like hopping all around the tank and each other then hooking up in little brawls the spray bottle came in handy for breaking up these little deadly confrontations!!!

 

[xenuwantsyou]

I gently flick their front legs. It probably doesn't work as well as the spray bottle method, but I don't have reason to separate mantids very often.

 

[HepCatMoe]

according to david attenborough mating displays evolved in predator isects so they could tell the other insect was a mate and not prey.

if the female did a mating display and the male did not respond...

 

[Way.Of.The.Mantis]

Maybe this helps, but im guessing the 'dancing' is usually a threat...