Problems mating Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii

[happy1892]

I have just started raising Spiny flower mantises, and I had trouble trying to get the males to mount the females. I eventually got all the males to mate by putting the males onto the female's back using a plastic tooth brush.

The slippery plastic tooth brush made it easy to slide the male off onto the female's back, and even stimulated the male to mount because I guess the male felt like the tooth brush was a female underneath it. Once I put the male on top of the female, he stayed on the female and was interested in the female. But I usually had to use another tooth brush to keep the female from attacking the male. It might take some skill to keep the female from attacking the male when manually putting the male on top of the female...

The male should be at least 2 weeks old to be ready to mate I have read. Also, the female needs to be about 3 weeks old, if I remember correctly, so that she is ready to mate. Feed the female before trying to put the male on top of her. It may keep her from trying to eat him, and even feed her while trying to put the male on top of her to keep her busy eating.



The males don't mate for me on their own except in the early mornings before the sun comes up. And so I had trouble trying to even get the males interested in the females until I found this out. Now I mount the male manually onto the female with a plastic tooth brush so that I don't have to wait until early morning to pair them up.

In the early morning the males start flapping their wings and become active, even flying in their cages. It might be that in the wild, the early morning before sunrise is when male Spiny flower mantises fly to look for a mate. If you raise the temperature to 90F it might help to stimulate the male to mate.

If you have many Spiny Flower Mantises to mate, it may be easier for you to just put the male in with the female in a net cage and leave them alone for several days until you see the male mounted on her and mated. Make sure to feed the female so that she is not hungry to eat the male!

 

[agent A]

I find that if you keep these guys warm (like, low 90s F) for a week or 2 before introducing them, they are more willing to mate. Feed the female as the male mounts her to keep him safe

 

[happy1892]

Yes, I did try that. I kept them in a small bathroom for a few weeks at least heated up to the 90s F with a small heater. I still couldn't really get the males interested even with keeping the males and females warm like this. Although it probably helped. But even without this heating I was able to mate them in the cooler parts of the house ( which was in the 80s F to 90F, we use no air-conditioning) by manually putting the male on top of the female.

I was told by Craig Baker that he uses a fan to blow on the cage with the P. wahlbergii to stimulate mating. This, and heating them up in the 90s F and leaving the male and female alone together in the cage might be a better or more efficient method for mating large amounts of P. wahlbergii than manually putting the males on top of the females.