As most of you regular readers of this thread know, I have raised several Chinese Mantids from hatching to full adulthood.
I had also posted how I attempted to breed my only male to one of my females. Even though she has produced 2 oothecae I don't believe they are fertile as the adults did not join for any longer then a few seconds. I understand they have to be joined at least 30 minutes for the female to be properly fertilized. The second ootheca she layed was very tiny and looked really shabby.
Now comes the sad part. Within a couple of days of the attempted mating my only male stopped eating. He died a few days later. I know the males die soon after mating but I was surprised that he died so fast. I should have mated him with other females right away, but I wanted to give him a break because when I tried with a different female she attacked him. I had to rescue him from her. LOL Actually all she did was strike at him and he ran like hell.
I found a place that said they had adult males. At $7 each I thought that was kinda high, but in a pinch what can you do? My other females are fat with eggs. I ordered 3 of them and just hope they get here before the female get too old. Does anyone have any idea how long bred and unbred females can live?
Take care all,
Tom
I had also posted how I attempted to breed my only male to one of my females. Even though she has produced 2 oothecae I don't believe they are fertile as the adults did not join for any longer then a few seconds. I understand they have to be joined at least 30 minutes for the female to be properly fertilized. The second ootheca she layed was very tiny and looked really shabby.
Now comes the sad part. Within a couple of days of the attempted mating my only male stopped eating. He died a few days later. I know the males die soon after mating but I was surprised that he died so fast. I should have mated him with other females right away, but I wanted to give him a break because when I tried with a different female she attacked him. I had to rescue him from her. LOL Actually all she did was strike at him and he ran like hell.
I found a place that said they had adult males. At $7 each I thought that was kinda high, but in a pinch what can you do? My other females are fat with eggs. I ordered 3 of them and just hope they get here before the female get too old. Does anyone have any idea how long bred and unbred females can live?
Take care all,
Tom