another dubia question

this question is about sex, lol. which is a male and which is a female in the pic above? and why? please dont tell me because of the wings

and has anyone else noticed that males HATE to be held or even touched? all the females i have just chill when i pick them up and the males start freaking out. i wonder why that is, hmmmm......

I think it's the lighter color on the belly that makes it a female.

Edit: is it also because the male (on the left) has that extra scale (lack of a better word) at the end?

The extra scale (works for me) is how I tell. They look pretty similar color-wise as nymphs but males should still have that extra scale. It's really useful for sorting before the wings grow and if you don't want to feed off your females.

With males the last segment is small and narrow. With females, the last segment is large, as wide as the abdomen. It's not really an "extra" scale from what I can tell, it's just smaller on males.

Is this apparent in even very small nymphs or do you have to wait until they are close to molting into adults?

The narrow segment should be visible in mid-size nymphs. I don't know about very small nymphs but you definitely don't have to wait until they are close to adults.

ClarkeReptiles wrote:

Is this apparent in even very small nymphs or do you have to wait until they are close to molting into adults?

I suppose if you are able to hold a little one still and could actually see the last segment you could, but good luck.