# URGENT HELP NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!



## goneleocrazy (Nov 14, 2005)

Ok folks one of my wandering violins is going through its first moult since I have had it and I dont think it is going well.

It has fallen off its twig while it is still half in the skin.

Is there anything I can do to help it??


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## DMJ (Nov 14, 2005)

I THINK you could hold him by the tip of his old skin so that it hangs upside down. I did that once for a Lineola but not sure what can be done about something of that shape.


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## Rib (Nov 14, 2005)

I had this problem with one of my Dead leaf mantis. I found her at the bottom of the tank half in her skin looking pretty dead. What I did was simply pull her very gently out of her old skin with tweezers, and put her on the edge of my shelf so she could hang upside down and harden. She has turned out perfectly now so I recommend you do this


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## goneleocrazy (Nov 15, 2005)

Hi Guys

Thanks for the advice but unfortunately my little gongy didnt make it.

I helped it out of its old skin with a wet cotton swab to make the old skin softer and easier to remove but by the looks of it the neck had dried already and was bowed over so the front legs were almost underneath. They also didnt fold up like they should have.

She was unable to hold on to the branches i got for her to dry out properly as well and in the end she seemed to have no co-ordination at all.


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## Lan (Nov 15, 2005)

so sorry to hear that.  i hope your others are all right. wandering violins require lower humidity levels, but wouldn't low humidity hinder it's ability to molt correctly due to its complex shape?


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## goneleocrazy (Nov 15, 2005)

yeah tht the theory behind it I guess but my others moulted perfectly well with low humidity.

I think the main problem was that she fell off the leaf she was attached to by her old skin and then wasnt able to wriggle free.


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## Rib (Nov 15, 2005)

if you find them later on it might help to spray them with water to slow down their skin setting hard as you take them out. So far I have only lost 1 Mantis to a bad molt and since then I've managed to rescue mine if something goes wrong. I guess it depends on how late you find them


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## nympho (Nov 15, 2005)

> if you find them later on it might help to spray them with water to slow down their skin setting hard


I doubt water has any effect on skin hardening at all. Research on the fruit fly has isolated the genes for a hormone called bursicon which controls the hardening of the exoskeleton in insects. This hormone has also been found in other insects such as blow flies and cockroaches (close reletives of mantids) so is probably universal. Blow flies that are treated in some way to stop bursicon production stay soft but they can be injected with this hormone and then they harden. The same hormone probably has origins in marine arthropods, the ancestors of insects, which obviously do not need to 'dry off' to harden their exo's.


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## Rib (Nov 15, 2005)

> > if you find them later on it might help to spray them with water to slow down their skin setting hard
> 
> 
> I doubt water has any effect on skin hardening at all. Research on the fruit fly has isolated the genes for a hormone called bursicon which controls the hardening of the exoskeleton in insects. This hormone has also been found in other insects such as blow flies and cockroaches (close reletives of mantids) so is probably universal. Blow flies that are treated in some way to stop bursicon production stay soft but they can be injected with this hormone and then they harden. The same hormone probably has origins in marine arthropods, the ancestors of insects, which obviously do not need to 'dry off' to harden their exo's.


I stand corrected


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