Weird stuff on stick- ootheca attempts?

[cdcrocks]

So I mated my first mantises a few days ago- I actually saw some movement outside, and thinking it was a grasshopper or a moth, went to catch it as a treat for my big female Rhombo. However, to my delight, I found a healthy adult male S. carolina! After I had him caught, I was about to go back inside, before I also saw an adult female a couple of feet away. I think he had been following her pheromones, and had come in to mate. If I had been thinking better, I would have let them do their thing and caught them after- but I was super excited.

Since he was responding to a calling female, I assumed he was mature, so I put the two of them in my big mesh enclosure. However, she saw him right away, and was chasing him down. I took her out and put her in her own container with some crickets. Then, I put in my most mature female that I'd raised in the enclosure with him. This female eats like a queen every day and didn't notice him, or didn't care. I had to go to bed at that point, but the next morning, he was safely on her back. It was sometime late that night that my dad said they connected. He didn't want to wake me, so I didn't get to see it. I'm not sure that he knows what he's talking about, but he said his abdomen was wrapped around hers, so I'm assuming that they actually mated. He was still on her back after school that day, but got off before bed.

Today, as I went to feed my female, I noticed something odd on the stick in her enclosure. I think she was trying to lay an ootheca, but what went wrong? There looks to be a couple of eggs next to one of the spots. She seems healthy as ever. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Should she still lay an ooth or will we have to wait for her next one?

Dang, that's a wall of text. Heres a TL;DR-

My adult female carolina, who I believe to be mated with a wild male, had these things on the stick in her enclosure. Has anyone else seen this before? Will she still lay healthy ooths after this?

 

[Mantis Man13]

Just for future notice don't keep a male and female in the same cage. Cannibalism while mating is so common in captivity because the male has nowhere to go. I usually keep my male and female outside of the cage and I watch them the whole day while multitasking. This solves the cannibalism problem that so many people have. Also, I feed my female a lot before mating. As for the weird egg cases your female will most likely lay a real ootheca later.

 

[Rick]

Yes, that is what it is.

 

[cdcrocks]

Yeah, I know I was supposed to watch them, but it lasted much longer than I expected, and that female is the most docile mantis I own. She won't take larger crickets or anything she's not used to.

I hope you're right- I want some ooths for my backyard, and I'd rather release natives than chinese. I bet I'll have more mated females before long though.

 

[[email protected]]

That happened to me and my female continues to lay eggs like that. I don't think they can hatch. Se is fine, but I don't think I'll ever get any good ooths. In my case she is too small. I hope yours lays a healthy ooth.

 

[cdcrocks]

My wild female just laid a beautiful ootheca (on the mesh of couse) so I'm not that concerned. I just hope the one mentioned above lives a full happy life and has no other issues.

 

[Aryia]

I have had a couple females that dabble. There's never any eggs inside actually so they won't hatch, but the females have stayed healthy, just won't produce any viable oothecas.