Has anyone else seen a mantis get its arms caught on its head?

I have been raising a lot of nymphs and a couple weeks ago I noticed some of them would get over excited about food and miss the prey then get their feeding arms caught on their head. It was pretty startling at first, but they always got them loose. As they got older they stopped doing it. I'm not worried about it or anything I just wanted to share a weird observation I made.

Never seen that... but seems like it would be hilarious to watch haha

Connor said:

Never seen that... but seems like it would be hilarious to watch haha

Click to expand...

Oh, it is. You can tell they are confused because they caught something and want to eat it, but can't get it to their mouth. 

lol that's pretty cute 

With the more aggressive species (i.e. Hierodula, Sphodromantis, Rhombodera, Cilnia, etc...) I wouldn't by surprised if they grabbed their leg and bit it and jumped up like "OW! WHO BIT ME? Oh wait that was me."

mantisfan101 said:

With the more aggressive species (i.e. Hierodula, Sphodromantis, Rhombodera, Cilnia, etc...) I wouldn't by surprised if they grabbed their leg and bit it and jumped up like "OW! WHO BIT ME? Oh wait that was me."

Click to expand...

Lol, honestly with those guys they may have already torn off their legs haha

Ive seen my rhombos get thier arm stuck behind thier shield.

Never seen that in nymphs but I have seen it in old mantis as they are in the process of passing. They will sometimes grab their head rather violently or their antennae. I've always assumed it was them loosing control of different functions as their bodies shut down. I've had more than a couple mantises catch their own legs when snagging food, but they always seem very alert to this and once they get the prey in a better position they always release their leg without damaging it.

My adult mantids do this occasionally, it looks pretty silly and they kinda stay in that position like "hmm..what do I do now". Usually happens when they're upside-down though. I've also seen my mantis grab a ball of dirt when swiping at a cricket ..and then tasting the ball of dirt before dropping it in surprise lol  :lol: