Possible case of parthenogenesis

[soundspawn]

So I have an Acromantis formosana adult female. She molted to adult 10 days ago... and laid an ooth last night. She hasn't been mated (I've had her for three instars and don't even have a male formosana). What I find odd is to lay so fast if not fertilized.

In my experience females hold their first ooth quite a while waiting for fertilization, and on paper she isn't even sexually mature yet! Anyone have any insights or predictions?

 

[Rick]

I'm not sure they wait because they are waiting on a male to fertilize the eggs since mated and unmated females seem to lay ooths at about the same time all other things being equal. I think it just takes time for eggs to mature and for the female to obtain the resources to make an ooth.

Ten days is very fast to make an ooth. I don't know if that is typical for the species or not.

 

[soundspawn]

Small correction, I'm not saying females intentionally hold their ooth saying "sure hope a male comes around soon", but for example I have about a dozen female chinese right now, all molted within the same couple of weeks... and the only ones who have laid any ooths are the ones who have been mated. This trend continues across every specie I have or have ever had. Maybe there's a better term for describing that?

It sure seems like mating is triggering ootecae production, and a secondary trigger exists (possibly age) that eventually can cause infertile females to lay as well. Either that or I'm like a mating psychic because I could set a clock based on the number of days between mating to ootheca production.

It sounds as though our experiences are polar opposite. My females wait upward to two months or more before laying an infertile ooth, and my mated females lay fertile oothecae right when you would expect (~10 days after mating for many species as an example). Are you saying all of your females, given final molt at the same time and a controlled environment so all else being equal, would lay an ooth the same day regardless of being mated?

 

[dmina]

Wow very interesting...??? I can't help my own experience... but good points...

 

[Aryia]

Small correction, I'm not saying females intentionally hold their ooth saying "sure hope a male comes around soon", but for example I have about a dozen female chinese right now, all molted within the same couple of weeks... and the only ones who have laid any ooths are the ones who have been mated. This trend continues across every specie I have or have ever had. Maybe there's a better term for describing that?

It sure seems like mating is triggering ootecae production, and a secondary trigger exists (possibly age) that eventually can cause infertile females to lay as well. Either that or I'm like a mating psychic because I could set a clock based on the number of days between mating to ootheca production.

It sounds as though our experiences are polar opposite. My females wait upward to two months or more before laying an infertile ooth, and my mated females lay fertile oothecae right when you would expect (~10 days after mating for many species as an example). Are you saying all of your females, given final molt at the same time and a controlled environment so all else being equal, would lay an ooth the same day regardless of being mated?

I can actually second that experience with multiple species. Out of two rhombodera stallis (one connected, the other had a male but didn't connect) only the mated female lay oothecas. The other female has been calling and looks as if she's about to explode but hasn't laid in 3-4 months. Same thing with my two P. affinis females (one I didn't even attempt to mate, the other is producing fertile ootheca. With S. viridis I mated three females which are all laying, but the fourth unmated female hasn't laid yet. Two of the four H. bipapilla mated females have laid, the other two have not laid for some reason. But all of the non-mated females have not laid either and they are well-overdue in age. Actually all of the non-laying females are at least 3-4 months old.

On the other hand, all of my M. caffra females (mated and unmated) are laying ootheca though none of them have hatched. My P. paradoxa has laid early without seeing a male before, though the ootheca were confirmed unfertile. And my Tenodera also laid without a mate, though the oothecas were very messy.

Most of the species I have tend to lay very soon after being mated (within a week), though two species, D. lobata and R. stalli have taken about 3-4 weeks after mating until they laid (total adult age 8-11 weeks).

I think it may be species dependent, though I will need more cases to see if all these cases are consistent. Though we know one thing ^^ Nothing is ever simple about mantises!

And to make this post relevant to the original question, your ootheca may or may not be parthenogenic, incubate it and we'll see in a couple of weeks! I have had females lay at 4 weeks into adulthood even though they've never seen a male, and I don't feed my unmated females much at all so it definitely wouldn't have been caused by an excess of food.

 

[Aryia]

There was a website which listed mantises by their families and genuses and had notes on their parthenogenic abilities I wanted to check if there's any correlation between what I'm seeing and between known parthenogenic species but I can't find that darn list again..

 

[dmina]

There was a website which listed mantises by their families and genuses and had notes on their parthenogenic abilities I wanted to check if there's any correlation between what I'm seeing and between known parthenogenic species but I can't find that darn list again..

That is the way it always goes! I bookmark everything, I think I might need again... the WWW. is a very large place... Stuff gets lost all the time..