# Hierodula membranacea dead - black liquid leaking out underneath her wings



## perrutzky (Oct 26, 2015)

Dear mantis friends..

Today was a sad day.

As I described in the title, I lost one of my precious girls to a mysterious death.

Best I'll show you, that you know what I'm talking about.

It looks horrible though!

Have you ever seen anything like this before? Could anyone tell me what happened to my girl?

Thank you so much for your answers  

Michelle


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## PlayingMantis (Oct 26, 2015)

Sorry for your loss, may she rest in peace. Today one of my adult females passed away as well. How old was the female? I mean, for how long has she been adult?

I don't know if the mantis had the brown discoloration when she was alive, or if it's simply the beginning of decomposition after the mantis died. Depending on the temperature, the body can start decomposing pretty quickly. If she had the discoloration while alive, it could've been a bacterial or fungal infection. Can't say for sure.


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## perrutzky (Oct 27, 2015)

PlayingMantis said:


> Sorry for your loss, may she rest in peace. Today one of my adult females passed away as well. How old was the female? I mean, for how long has she been adult?
> 
> I don't know if the mantis had the brown discoloration when she was alive, or if it's simply the beginning of decomposition after the mantis died. Depending on the temperature, the body can start decomposing pretty quickly. If she had the discoloration while alive, it could've been a bacterial or fungal infection. Can't say for sure.


Thanks for your response and sorry for your loss as well..

She molted to adult maybe 1.5 months ago and laid a beautiful ooth (infertile though) the weekend before she passed away.

The discoloration is actually a slimy liquid. I couldn't figure out where it came from though - I only know that it killed her and now I'm concerned that I might lose another mantis to this whatever it is..


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## PlayingMantis (Oct 29, 2015)

Sorry to hear that. The slimy liquid doesn't sound good, it most likely sounds like some sort of infection. I've never had it happen to me before, I mean, I have had mantises vomit black/brown liquid and die shortly after. Might be something different.

However, I do remember seeing a post from someone else, showing photos of mantises with "rotten" (for the lack of a better term) abdomens. I don't know, I think once a mantis gets infected like that, there's not much you can do.


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## Sticky (Nov 11, 2015)

How did she look hours after that? Was her body rotting and becoming soft and turning dark like an old fruit?

If so, it is similar to what happened to one of my girls after she ate a bad roach. I will look for the pics of her.


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## Sticky (Nov 11, 2015)

You might have seen my post about it. Ghost, who was so beautiful and perfect, rotted within 24 hours after eating a roach I bought from Ebay. She was a beautiful pale green. Then she became this horror. There was something wrong with the roaches I had bought. They smelled like rotten meat.

She fell apart when I picked her up.


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## Ghost_Keeper (Nov 11, 2015)

Oh my, that is terrible...


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## Sticky (Nov 11, 2015)

Yes it was. Absolutely heartbreaking. I believe she could potentially have lived to be a year old or more. She was two weeks from her birthday. She was so alive and beautiful. Im proud to say she was in the calendar for this year!


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## perrutzky (Nov 13, 2015)

Sticky said:


> You might have seen my post about it. Ghost, who was so beautiful and perfect, rotted within 24 hours after eating a roach I bought from Ebay. She was a beautiful pale green. Then she became this horror. There was something wrong with the roaches I had bought. They smelled like rotten meat.
> 
> She fell apart when I picked her up.
> 
> ...


I saw your post and even commented it on facebook..

thank you for your reply.

As I don't feed roaches it wasn't a roach.

I stick with wax worms, wax moths, flies and a cricket from time to time..

but it might have been a fungus or some kind of fungal infection..but something killed a second mantis in the meantime. It didn't look as bad but it died without any obvious reasons.

I cleanded the enclosures of my other mantids and poured boiling water over the surfaces and sticks, just in case it was because of something not being clean enough.


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## Sticky (Nov 13, 2015)

It turns out that the roaches were contaminated by insecticide. It didnt hurt the roaches but killed my two mantids.


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