Orchid Mating

[chinomathboy]

Yes, finally... My pair of orchid was ready for mating this past Monday... I didn't let the male jump on the female... I put him there... And as soon as he realized he was on a female, he started drumming... It was definitely neat to look at... The female was fed 5 waxworms by me, and a few flies left in the container for her to catch. I witnessed mating a couple of times on Monday afternoon and night. I left them together til Tuesday afternoon. The male was still on her back. I fed her a few more waxworms and wax moths. She ate all of the flies I left for her on Monday. As soon as I put a few more in there on tuesday afternoon after her meals on waxworms, she snatched them right up. The COOL thing was, the male caught a fly while on her back as well... I made sure the female didn't turn around and ate them both... I took a few pictures, I will post them later tonight.... Now I will have to wait for her to lay her ootheca... And I will separate them tonight, since they have been together since monday morning.

 

[ibanez_freak]

Wow,

I really hope to breed something like that. Well, good luck to that!

Cheers, Cameron.

 

[chinomathboy]

HOpe you all enjoy... I sure enjoyed watching them...

 

[Ian]

Nice one chen! Awsome pix...lets hope this leads to some offspring

 

[Rick]

Size difference is amazing on those. Did he actually mate because in most of those pics he is just sitting on her back?

 

[Andrew]

Congrats! How long did you wait to breed them after they molted into adult?

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[chinomathboy]

Yes, they did mate on two different occasions, I just didn't want to bother them, so no pictures on those. It's quite interesting when the female is moving, the male is holding on to the female tightly with its head almost touching the female's back. And when she is stopped, he immediately drums on her back signaling her that he is still there. I didn't notice any aggression at all from the female, but I did make sure she was FULL at all time...

They were allowed to mate when the female is 2 weeks old. However, I did put the male with the female when the male was two days old... I was curious what the male would do. He did drum, but I separate them shortly because I didn't want them to mate yet. The female actually did turn around swinging at him and flat her wings to get him off(she was roughly one week old then).

Hopefully everything will be fine, and I get plenty of nymphs available!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

 

[Andrew]

Thanks for the info.

Ive got a subadult pair that should be molting soon. Hopefully things will go as well as they did for you.

Good luck with them.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[Samzo]

Nice job, lovely pics. My male has been an adult for a while and the female is due :?