P.W. Mating Tips?

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Mantidforum

Help Support Mantidforum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I know we talked about this in chat a while back that maybe it was less variety of wild feeders that was the problem.

 
SilentDeviL said:
I'll give it a test and see ... Is June now should be able to catch some Insect in my back yard .. still got 6 female to mate headache ...
Click to expand...
im gonna try this when mine hatch. from L1 to adult i will offer flies moths katydids and other insects just to keep it broad for them and with fingers crossed i will have a good breeding stock, lol. its weird how generations change, and maybe its time for some fresh bloodlines to be introduced somehow.

 
Well, after going on to day 3 riding around on top of the female, I found his wings at the bottom of the enclosure. :( If the female lays an ooth in the next two days, I'll hold hope that they connected when I wasn't around.

As for the males being eaten, I believe that if you offer a female food while he's still riding around, you could save him from being eaten.

 
sinensispsyched said:
Well, after going on to day 3 riding around on top of the female, I found his wings at the bottom of the enclosure. :( If the female lays an ooth in the next two days, I'll hold hope that they connected when I wasn't around.

As for the males being eaten, I believe that if you offer a female food while he's still riding around, you could save him from being eaten.
Click to expand...
The wahlbergii don't connect that long. So, it's possible, and they often mate at night. I would incubate anyway. Some of my ooths that aren't fertile are very thin, but you can't always tell. The fertile females do typically lay ooths on a regular basis. With mine, I found some of the ones that weren't mated with this last generation would hold back and then lay really long and thin ooths.

But feeding the females doesn't always work with this species. I've fed some females so much that they pushed away food I was offering them but ate the male anyway.

jrh3 said:
im gonna try this when mine hatch. from L1 to adult i will offer flies moths katydids and other insects just to keep it broad for them and with fingers crossed i will have a good breeding stock, lol. its weird how generations change, and maybe its time for some fresh bloodlines to be introduced somehow.
Click to expand...
I think Rebecca had some ooths in the past that were different bloodline. And Yen was selling some nymphs last year that were supposed to be a different bloodline. I got some of them, but I had the same issue.

 
Tammy Wolfe said:
I had seven males with my original stock, and I used everyone for mating. Back then, they were all interested. My problem with this generation is that some of the females aren't interested. They eat the males before mating, and that never happened in the past. I've had some females interested and some males but never two interested at the same time.

Good luck to you and ismart! Hope you can keep these going.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by the females not being interested? Do they not let the males mount before getting eaten? I have found with this species you could just easily place the males right on the females backs. This method has let me save quite a few males in the past. If the female goes nutts right away, then you know she is not ready remove the male immedately.

The two females that i was able to breed. Would not tolerate a second mating. As soon as the male would touch there wings they would go nutts attacking the males. My two unmated females were very receptive til all the males died in the end.

Years ago when i breed this species for the first time. I had this same problem with the males. I don't know know if this is caused by inbreeding, or diet, but anything is worth trying to get a healthy stock going.

Best of luck to all those trying to breed them. These guys are one of my favorite species. There mannerisms remind me of cats the most.

 
sinensispsyched said:
Well, after going on to day 3 riding around on top of the female, I found his wings at the bottom of the enclosure. :( If the female lays an ooth in the next two days, I'll hold hope that they connected when I wasn't around.

As for the males being eaten, I believe that if you offer a female food while he's still riding around, you could save him from being eaten.
Click to expand...
I do hope you were successful! :)

No matter how full you may think she is? There is always room for desert. :p

 
ismart said:
What do you mean by the females not being interested? Do they not let the males mount before getting eaten? I have found with this species you could just easily place the males right on the females backs. This method has let me save quite a few males in the past. If the female goes nutts right away, then you know she is not ready remove the male immedately.

The two females that i was able to breed. Would not tolerate a second mating. As soon as the male would touch there wings they would go nutts attacking the males. My two unmated females were very receptive til all the males died in the end.

Years ago when i breed this species for the first time. I had this same problem with the males. I don't know know if this is caused by inbreeding, or diet, but anything is worth trying to get a healthy stock going.

Best of luck to all those trying to breed them. These guys are one of my favorite species. There mannerisms remind me of cats the most.
Click to expand...
With my original stock I didn't have to place the males on the females with the exception of one of the females. The females were all spraying pheromones and the males mounted them on their own. These females sprayed pheromones almost up until the day they died. The next generation was about the same. But with my third round, I did put the males on the females back and sometimes used different males. With my current generation, the females aren't spraying pheromones like they have done in the past. If they do, they are less obvious about it and do it for a shorter period at night. I tried letting them mate on their own in large terrariums, and the males kept their distance. When they didn't, they were eaten. Then I tried putting the males on the females back, and the females would reach back and try to grab the male. When the male was mounted on her back, the females made no effort other than to try to remove the male. In the past I've seen the females work with the males to get in the right position for mating.

I've had the females be receptive as early as two weeks by always by four weeks. You mentioned the females "going nutts." Well, I've had some do that at three weeks, four weeks, two months, three months. They never seem to be receptive. A couple of the males that I had tried and tried to connect but were not able to. Despite not being receptive, I think these females are all healthy. Some that molted to adults in November and December are still alive and have a hearty appetitie. They lay ooths but much less often that mated females do.

I have six wahlbergii nymphs that are pre and sub adults that a friend sent me to care for. (Same bloodline I think) I will be trying again if he doesn't want these back.

 
Tammy Wolfe said:
With my original stock I didn't have to place the males on the females with the exception of one of the females. The females were all spraying pheromones and the males mounted them on their own. These females sprayed pheromones almost up until the day they died. The next generation was about the same. But with my third round, I did put the males on the females back and sometimes used different males. With my current generation, the females aren't spraying pheromones like they have done in the past. If they do, they are less obvious about it and do it for a shorter period at night. I tried letting them mate on their own in large terrariums, and the males kept their distance. When they didn't, they were eaten. Then I tried putting the males on the females back, and the females would reach back and try to grab the male. When the male was mounted on her back, the females made no effort other than to try to remove the male. In the past I've seen the females work with the males to get in the right position for mating.

I've had the females be receptive as early as two weeks by always by four weeks. You mentioned the females "going nutts." Well, I've had some do that at three weeks, four weeks, two months, three months. They never seem to be receptive. A couple of the males that I had tried and tried to connect but were not able to. Despite not being receptive, I think these females are all healthy. Some that molted to adults in November and December are still alive and have a hearty appetitie. They lay ooths but much less often that mated females do.

I have six wahlbergii nymphs that are pre and sub adults that a friend sent me to care for. (Same bloodline I think) I will be trying again if he doesn't want these back.
Click to expand...
Ya me2 I didn't have to put the male on her back ... they all jump on them self .... the problem is after jumping on ....Male just wont mate ... till it become dinner .... I had 22 males to play with I'm sure i did enough test ..... the result is not all male is willing to mate they will jump tho .......

 
SilentDeviL said:
Ya me2 I didn't have to put the male on her back ... they all jump on them self .... the problem is after jumping on ....Male just wont mate ... till it become dinner .... I had 22 males to play with I'm sure i did enough test ..... the result is not all male is willing to mate they will jump tho .......
Click to expand...
YES!!! That is my exact problem!!
 
ismart said:
I guess for future reference when obtaining this species, get a large amount to work with. I was given 18 L1 nymphs. 8 survived to adulthood. The others died off soon after i received them.
Click to expand...
I got 3 to begin with, one accidentally got squished (oops!) and the other two were kept until today.

 
sinensispsyched said:
I got 3 to begin with, one accidentally got squished (oops!) and the other two were kept until today.
Click to expand...
Don't worrie Buddy Just mated my 5th Pair today and 2 more jumped on so hope i get 7 pair mated by end of this week lol .... and I'm sure I'll have enough Ooth to go around to Make P.W like Cero once again lol ... Just waiting for my first few hatch and enough 2nd gen i keep before selling any ooth .

 
SilentDeviL said:
Don't worrie Buddy Just mated my 5th Pair today and 2 more jumped on so hope i get 7 pair mated by end of this week lol .... and I'm sure I'll have enough Ooth to go around to Make P.W like Cero once again lol ... Just waiting for my first few hatch and enough 2nd gen i keep before selling any ooth .
Click to expand...
Good luck Al!

 
Oh my guys, I hope that the generations continue . . . And this is why "sustainable mantid breeding" is a good option. Keep the numbers strong in the wild, and if captivity fails, at least we still have that species of mantids living on earth.

 
Just a quick update. I woke up this morning to one of my ooths hatching. So far only two nymphs. Hopefuuly there will be a bunch more when i come home from work later?

 

Latest posts

Top