Female's aggression towards male roach

hundefrau

hundefrau

Third Instar
Good evening :)

I noticed an interesting, different behaviour in a recently molted adult female ("Rosie" is her name). She seems to be less than thrilled about my original male's advances. She gets very defensive whenever he tries to make a move on her and I think Rosie even attacks him (if she is not fleeing in a hurry) :o

Have you ever observed such defensive behaviour in a female? The other females just sit still and ignore him till he goes away.

Thanks in advance :)

 
hundefrau said:
Good evening :)

I noticed an interesting, different behaviour in a recently molted adult female ("Rosie" is her name). She seems to be less than thrilled about my original male's advances. She gets very defensive whenever he tries to make a move on her and I think Rosie even attacks him (if she is not fleeing in a hurry) :o

Have you ever observed such defensive behaviour in a female? The other females just sit still and ignore him till he goes away.

Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...
She may have already mated and just doesn't want to mate again, so maybe that's why she's acting defensive? Just a theory. :)

 
It seams like one of my flat horn males picks on one of my female  quite regularlly, I think I have 2 many males though, I need to cull 1 or 2. Maybe he just has a preference when it comes to female roaches  :P

 
If she has only recently moulted perhaps she is just not ready to mate yet? It's possible she may just need a bit of time before she becomes receptive to the male after her final moult, so maybe in a day or two she won't be so defensive with him?

I certainly find with my female stick insects that they usually don't mate straight after their final moult even if adult males are around (in some cases it's taken a couple of weeks after their final moult before both males and females take any interest in the opposite sex!) so perhaps roaches are similar?

 
Thank you for your replies :)

I thought about her just not being ready to mate yet, too. But I observed something interesting today when checking in with them after uni.

My "main" male, Otto, now seems to resent her as well. He jumps on her back when she is in his vicinity, maybe to "beat" her into submission or maybe he suddenly just doesn't fancy her anymore, and runs around the box in a hurry. He usually only does this to Ulrich, my other male in the box.

Now, I checked Rosie's abdominal segments several times and compared them to the other ladies' segments, they look identical - one bigger segment at the end. She's a lady alright. That being said, Rosie is a massive specimen in comparison to all my other roaches, maybe Otto is... intimidated by her? :P

Anyway..I guess all three of us have to make do with the current situation till the new box is ready and they can keep away from each other.

 
As you have two males they might be running around to establish a dominance hierarchy and the female is just "in the way". I had this when I bought 4 G. portentosa (2 males and 2 females) a few months ago - for the first month or so the males were running all over the tank chasing each other until one established dominance and since then it has been a lot quieter. The dominant male and the 2 females now tend to hang out together on a piece of cork bark most of the time, and the other male sits on his own at the other end of the tank. So it might be that the female is just getting caught up in the males' fight for dominance?

Are there plenty of places for the female to hide if she is being chased/harassed? i.e. cork bark or egg flats that she can hide under if the males are running around or chasing her? In my case with the G. portentosa the females were able to hide under an egg flat and in a toilet roll tube whilst the males were chasing each other but now there is a definite hierarchy and less fighting they come out more often, so perhaps just giving your female more places to hide will help.

 
I'm not sure if that's the answer, as my two males are not chasing each other. Ever since the newer male molted into adulthood he hides away in the substrate most of the time. There never really was much chasing going on (Rosie was still a sub-adult nymph at that time) :o

Yeah, she has plenty of egg flats and other hiding places to keep away from Otto. Most of the time she is hidden in the substrate, anyway.

 
Ok, so when I came home from uni, I saw Rosie and my other male sitting butt-to-butt (ergo they just mated). She seems to fancy him a lot more.

So her disdain was really directed specifically towards my original male. Maybe he was *too* eager in the beginning :P

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top