H. coronatus, sex plz!

[Alice]

hi all,

i got a h. coronatus 3 months ago, bought it as a female. last night it molted into an adult, and i think it's a male

i haven't had many mantids yet, so maybe i'm wrong, but the wings are a good deal longer than the abdomen - so does that indicate a male with this species?

sorry for the pic quality, but i wanted to give it enough time to harden up, so it's taken through the glas. it's about 3" from eyes to wingtips now.

thnx for your comments!

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Can you get a shot of the underside? In my experience with North American mantids, the males have much thinner and "straighter" abdomens, like this ||, whereas the females have more ()-shaped abdomens.

Or if you could get a dorsal shot of the terminal abdominal segment (probably not easy with the wings, though). Males have what looks like a tiny pair of cerci between the regular cerci, and females have a small slit-like opening parallel to and between the cerci.

 

[Alice]

yes, i think i can

at least i'll try when i get home after work. i'll put her in a bigger tank then and take some more and hopeully better pics. 48 hours should suffice for her to dry out as the have a very thin exoskelleton, am i right?

maybe it's a she after all, as it certainly has an abdomen shaped like this: () and not a straigh one.

 

[Alice]

i googled a bit and spoke to an expert and it's a female! appaently, th males get a brown body as adults and are much smaller than mine is.

i'll still get a better pic tonight.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Good to hear! I saw pictures of orchid mantis mating once, and the male was ridiculously smaller than the female.

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

Don't need any shots of the underside for this one, obviously a female, my adult male was probably about 1 and a quarter inches including wings, and the build is much different. I male of this species won't get anywhere near 3 inches and also mature a lot faster. Congrats on the female.