OK to be side-by-side?

[Ntsees]

My religiosa male and female were right next to each other in their enclosures and the male seemed to be constantly trying to get at her. I imagine that is because of pheromones being released by the female....

It could be, but in my experience, matured religiosa males tend to be very visual (more than with the use of pheromones I think) when they see females. I say this because when I try putting a female of another species near it (in my case, a female Iris oratoria), the male religiosa goes at like and wants to mate with it. Because they are of different species, I'm pretty sure the wrong pheromones didn't affect the males willingness to mate with a different species.

Don't let it happen, but try letting him see one of your Chinese females.

 

[shorty]

It could be, but in my experience, matured religiosa males tend to be very visual (more than with the use of pheromones I think) when they see females. I say this because when I try putting a female of another species near it (in my case, a female Iris oratoria), the male religiosa goes at like and wants to mate with it. Because they are of different species, I'm pretty sure the wrong pheromones didn't affect the males willingness to mate with a different species.

Don't let it happen, but try letting him see one of your Chinese females.

I just read in another post that someone found a M. religiosa male trying to mate with a T. sinensis female so you might be right.

 

[Rick]

I just read in another post that someone found a M. religiosa male trying to mate with a T. sinensis female so you might be right.

I noticed the visual aspect of it years ago. When I was younger I used to find male stagmomantis males mounted on chinese females. Sometimes there would be more than one. I often find narrow wing mantis mounted on chinese.