# Possible abdominal collapse on my spiny flower



## ChitandChat (Feb 3, 2021)

Hi guys, recently my adult female spiny flower mantis (molted 2 weeks ago), Emilii, has been acting very anxiously and defensively. I'd find her pacing around her enclosure and sometimes desperately trying to climb up. This had led to fall a couple of times before righting herself back up. As of yesterday I noticed a pulsating white/light blue mass coming out of her rear. At first I thought it might've been the ootheca substance; however, today I noticed her abdomen has shrunk considerably as her wings are more visible from the bottom. She's also not eating as she's let a few flies pass by her. I only feed her flies that I rinse a bit with distilled water to wash off any possible filth.

Update: I went to check on her and she was eating a fly!


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## MrGhostMantis (Feb 3, 2021)

That looks like a male.


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## ChitandChat (Feb 3, 2021)

MrGhostMantis said:


> That looks like a male.


How do you figure? She has only 6 segments and she posseses the edge spikes only females have


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## MrGhostMantis (Feb 3, 2021)

Thin abdomen, wings go extremely far over the tip of the abdomen, female edge spikes are smaller.


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## ChitandChat (Feb 3, 2021)

MrGhostMantis said:


> Thin abdomen, wings go extremely far over the tip of the abdomen, female edge spikes are smaller.


Yea I know, that's why I mentioned her abdomen shrinking due to the wings being more exposed than before. Look at these pictures I took after her adult molt. 6 segments I believe and her wings pass her abdomen just a bit which matches pictures of other female spinys. I've tried finding a picture of another male to compare but I've had no luck.


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## Krissim Klaw (Feb 11, 2021)

She has prolapsed. Basically the inside cylinder that lines her abdomen is squished out of her rear. I've only had this happen once with one of my boys. As he was still able to defecate, he actually went on to live a fairly normal life.


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