This was not planned...

[Domanating]

Ok so in "General discussion" forum i started a topic about my mantid finds this summer and my complains about the lack of females. Well i finally found one last week along with one additional male which makes 6 males and one female in captivity. Today i decided to mate my female with one of my males.

I gave to the female a big grasshopper before putting the male in the enclosure as a distraction (you can see the male in the background).

When she finished eating and started moving the male jumped over her and the mating was successful. The female actually saw the male coming but didn't attack it at all, stretching her claws to the front.

I just let them be, during the evening something came up for me and i was busy doing my stuff when suddenly 6 hours later i remembered about the couple. I knew exactly what to expect, the image tells everything lol.

So my issue here is that i wanted this male to mate a few more times as the female was laying ooths to make sure every single ooth is fertile. Now that that male is gone i wonder if i could use one of my other 5 males to continue the mating process? Is there any problem in mating different males after every ooth being laid?

 

[ShieldMantid1997]

The same thing happened to me last night, sam species. I was distracting her during mating with BB flies but i fell asleep on the spot. I wok up and all that was left was wings and legs..... I felt guilty at first.

 

[agent A]

I usually mate my females as much as possible

feed her up and in a few days, try to mate her with another male

that's what i always do

not sure how many ooths mantis religiosa (which looks to be your species) lay

but usually males don't live nearly as long as females

i would just mate her several times while you have males

i've had ooths that were the female's 10th hatch, even if the female didn't remate

good luck with them

 

[mantiscraze]

That's very sad. I have my adult Gonatista grisea in the same enclosure and they are free to mate as frequently as they like. Have not had a problem with sexual cannibalism.

Here is an interesting take on the whole thing.

http://drbeetle.homestead.com/mantis.html

 

[Rick]

The mating was fine I am sure. In the future use a very large cage or free range them on a curtain or houseplant so he can fly off. Eating the male is the exception, not the norm.

 

[Domanating]

Interesting info mantiscraze, however it doesn't explain very well my situation. I gave my female 4 of those big grasshoppers in the last 3 days before attempting mating, being the one in the picture the 4th grasshopper. I disagree with what the article says about overfeeding. The praying-mantis knows when to stop eating. Males don't even finish their food and females sometimes eat the legs sometimes don't, or sometimes eat the whole bug or leave the digestive system of the victim intact, which was the case with the last grasshopper, proving that my female was already full. 6 or 5 hours later the male was gone. It was hard to believe that the female could still eat something big after all she ate.

Mantis Religiosa species is far from being social. Putting 2 of these in the same enclosure can be a death sentence for both of them even with the enclosure full of food.

I recently read a topic about breeding multiple males with one female and they say that there's a conflict between the sperm of each male that one is excluded or something like that but it turns out it depends of the species. I don't know what my species does about multiple sperms in one female so i'm hesitating in mating my female with a different male.

 

[Domanating]

The mating was fine I am sure. In the future use a very large cage or free range them on a curtain or houseplant so he can fly off. Eating the male is the exception, not the norm.

Last year i had had a similar mating in the same enclosure and some hours later i found the couple peacefully hanging around the enclosure separately. If i remember well that female didn't eat as much as this year's female but no cannibalism occurred. It's odd

 

[mantiscraze]

Weird things happen in prison is all. Behaviors of captive mantis can't be used to explain their nature.

A number of things and or combinations of them can affect their mating in confinement. The best we can do, breeding mantis indoors, is to provide them with adequate care (food and housing) and hope for the best. But keep in mind that things can go wrong.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

I find that almost every mantis is different, even from their own siblings, one is peaceful and the other is "Jack the Ripper" the other a fat over eating slob etc.

And one mating is all that is needed for life, if you want to remate after a few ooths thats fine too, but not absolutely needed, trust me I have proof from many single time mated females that had/have many, many Very fertile ooths.

 

[Domanating]

Thanks for the info. Anyway, yesterday was my lucky day! I found another female while i was searching for food for the others! I had no place to put the praying-mantis but in the same jar where i put the grasshoppers i find. When i returned home that female ******* ate half a grasshopper and another whole :lol:

This new female is 1cm shorter than the green one

 

[RevWillie]

Now that that male is gone i wonder if i could use one of my other 5 males to continue the mating process? Is there any problem in mating different males after every ooth being laid?

For whatever reason, that has been my plan all along: breed the females to different males every 2-3 ooths. The female Creo that laid the 1st ooth for me just laid her 3rd ooth Saturday, and I mated her with a different male last night.

 

[Domanating]

For my species, 3 or 4 ooths is very rare. They lay only 1 or 2 decent ooths. Sometimes they can lay more but the others are just too small and deformed. From my experience so far, the first 2 ooths are the only profitable ones.