Sexing help - your advice requested.

[Digger]

Thought I was pretty well informed when it came to Tenodera sinensis. TJ here absolutely confuses me. I raised him her from a newborn. Molted to adult about 20 days ago. Take a look at these photos of his her underside. What say you: male or female? The limited sections seem to indicate female. But this Chinese would be very (abnormally) small for a female. Matter of fact, he she would be abnormally small for a male. I have a bunch of "wild" males around the house - almost certainly from the same hatches TJ came from. Those outside visitors are gymongous (all males). TJ is about 6.5 cm in length.

What say you?

Thanks for the help!

 

[agent A]

female

 

[agent A]

it's possible she is tenodera angistopennis and not sinensis

 

[D_Hemptress]

looks female to me too, but you're right, that is confusing!

 

[Digger]

it's possible she is tenodera angistopennis and not sinensis

Alex - TJ sports a yellow chest spot. That indicates sinensis. Did you mean Augustipennis? That species sports an orange or light red spot. But my main question is sexing TJ.

 

[kunturman]

She is a small girl, and it happens with most creatures born from multiple births...runts.

 

[Digger]

There are lots of large males hanging out around the house. But they're larger than she. Wonder if a mating would be possible under those conditions?

 

[aNisip]

Female sinensis let her out to play, under parental supervision though. And if those males give her trouble, she'll put them in their place

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Rick]

What's confusing? Clearly a female. It should never be difficult to sex adult mantids. Shouldn't need to count segments on adults of a typical species like this, the two genders have abdomens that look quite different. Size is no indicator of gender. I've come across mantids from many species that are on the small side.

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7110

 

[gripen]

She could have skipped a moult. A few cases of mantids skipping moults and turning out much smaller than there sisters has been reported.

 

[Sticky]

I remember finding an extremely petite female luna moth some years back. She was perfect except for her size.