Odd twitching/shaking behavior

I have noticed this in multiple mantis species but there doesn't seem to be any ill effects afterwards.

The symptom is that the mantis tuck their heads down and their hands in then their antennas also point downward over the face. The scary part happens right after that. Their heads start to shake erratically and their mandibles/antenna move wildly. The motion carries downward to the end of their abdomen which spasms and opens up like it was alive or have a mind of its own. This behavior takes less than a minute and the mantis is back to a normal stance.

Does this happen to anyone else? Is there an explanation for this behavior?

Seen it many times. Pretty sure it is normal.

I've seen this 2 or 3 three times when a mantis is about to die. In your case, if you say the mantis just wanders around unharmed afterwards, it's odd. I interpret those symptoms as some kind of internal pain in guess...

Never seen that type of behavior on a healthy mantis though.

Maybe it has some kind of illness in the nervous system? Or maybe you're a facing a praying-mantis that suffers form Schizophrenia, lol

I have seen plenty of mantids shiver and shake, and they seemed fine and lived for a while afterwards.

Maybe it is just a stretching behavior? They do stay very still for long periods and I could imagine that they would need to reset every once in a while.

I shake sometimes at the end of a nice full body stretch, but maybe that is just weird.

I have had a mantis with one reptorial arm twitching from nymph all the way to adult with the same twitch and the twitching caused it to mismolt when it was a adult and died shortly after being a adult not sure of this is just a odd genetic disorder or what!

Hmm. I know my polyspilotas will do a little shiver/shake as I approach the cage when they're startled. I don't know if that's the same though.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I am going to conclude its some form of stretching because none of the mantis have died afterwards. I wish I could document the action on video but it happens randomly and too quickly.

meaganelise9 said:

Hmm. I know my polyspilotas will do a little shiver/shake as I approach the cage when they're startled. I don't know if that's the same though.

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That behavior is also common, I think that they try to look as if they are part of a plant that gets disturbed by air movement or something like that.

This is completely normal. I've seen it in every species I've kept. Think of it as being equivalent to a yawn.

Precarious said:

This is completely normal. I've seen it in every species I've kept. Think of it as being equivalent to a yawn.

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Then why is it that I don't twitch and shake after I see it happen? :lol:

patrickfraser said:

Then why is it that I don't twitch and shake after I see it happen? :lol:

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Transference is species specific. :tt2:

One of my Tenodera Nymphs did something similar yesterday...just started shaking and then waved his forelegs like crazy.I wouldn't worry about it, though. :mellow:

I agree with the other's. I see this happen sometimes in all species.

I dont know what it is, or what it means, but it must be normal.

No worries

Precarious said:

Transference is species specific. :tt2:

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Interesting, isnt it!?

Why dont we want to recipricate when we see our dog or cat yawn, has to be another human!?

I've experienced this and it was definitely scary to watch! When my mantis was around L3, there was a time (about a week) where she did this everyday. It looked like she was having a seizure -- her front body would almost fall to the floor and she would shake for a few minutes and then act like nothing was wrong. It eventually passed but I thought she was dying!