# annoying molt with popa spurca



## ibanez_freak (Dec 23, 2005)

Hi,

today my male popa spurca molted into adult but its wings came out funny. I don't think they are still drying because it's been like 6 hours now at least. I think they dried in an odd way I guess. Same thing happened to my hierodula sp. and don't know the cause. Any thing I can do to stop this happening again because the female is about to molt into adult. Also, does this affect mating at all? I was thinking they may need to do displays or show they're adult by having wings in order to mate.

Thank you for the help, Cameron.

p.s. will post pics.


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## ibanez_freak (Dec 23, 2005)

Hey,

here are those pics I got now. Almost looks like it thought it was a lace wing or something in some pics.






















It's kinda sad, lookded real nice up till now. So any one gonna reply :lol: need a bit of advice on this one.

Cheers, Cameron.


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## Rick (Dec 23, 2005)

That happens sometimes. He should be fine.


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## ibanez_freak (Dec 23, 2005)

Any tips on how to avoid having this happen again? Or do mantis just get unlucky sometimes?

Cheers, Cameron.


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## Samzo (Dec 23, 2005)

Everytime its happened to me it was because they fell during or after molting


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## Ian (Dec 23, 2005)

Thats interesting...the wings are just lifted, rather than mis-shaped. Actually, that looks like a pretty good bad moult if you see what I mean..the wings are not really anything so bad, it would effect the mantis. I have had nothing but trouble with the Blepharopsis moulting into adults. And when these went bad, they went bad pretty dam badly. The wings just totally screwed up, and I had to cut them off on some of them, as they were making it pretty hard for them to move around.

I think the only thing you can do to prevent things like that happening, is raising the humidity. That will soften the skin, and be easier for the mantid to shed.

Did it have enough room to moult, and then crawl and hang, to let its wings spread?

Cheers,

Ian


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## Rick (Dec 23, 2005)

Like Ian said it won't affect him at all really. Except for flying of course. I've seen it on wild mantids too. How was your humidity at the time of molting?


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