Dead nymph in hatching phase

CosbyArt · Jan 23, 2015

Yesterday I had a nymph that got stuck during hatching. It was so close, it got stuck at the last bend on the abdomen above the legs (close to the notch on the top-side of the nymph, right-side of the image).

It continued to try to pull itself free for several hours so I left it to it (as any pulling by me would have just killed it); however, as you can see it did not survive. Today I was hoping to see the nymph in the container but found it still stuck. I removed it from the ooth and decided it would be worth photographing to see the nymph hatching phase.

The raptor forearms seem to be wrapped around the top of the head and the walking legs are flatten straight out the length. As you can tell the nymph is starting to decay, and the large black pool at top is one deflated eye.

This is a focus stacked image of the nymph on a piece of white printer paper that I photographed with my Canon PowerShot SX30 IS with reversed 50mm lens, using a CHDK script.

dmina · Jan 23, 2015

Wow... that is different... there must have been something wrong with it from the beginning... Thanks for sharing..

Ranitomeya · Jan 24, 2015

When hatching from an ootheca, the mantis must first escape the shell of the egg as a pronymph and then crawl out of the ootheca. Once it's outside the ootheca, it has to shed the exoskeleton of its pronymph stage in order to become a nymph of the first instar. It has to emerge from the old exoskeleton within minutes after initiating ecdysis in order to come out successfully without any structural deformation. If any molt takes too long, the new exoskeleton begins to harden beneath the old exoskeleton and the rigidity causes it to lose the ability to complete ecdysis. If a molt takes over an hour, you can generally make the assumption that they're stuck and will not be able to molt successfully. We are unfortunately unable to help them due to the fact that they need to undergo a series of special muscle contractions in order to molt not just the outer exoskeleton, but also the lining of their tracheal system. If you were to forceably remove a mantis from its old exoskeleton before it's managed to get the lining of its tracheal system out, it would be unable to breathe and would end up dying.

dmina · Jan 24, 2015

Wow... that was interesting... another lesson learned.. thanks for sharing!

CosbyArt · Jan 24, 2015

dmina said:
Wow... that is different... there must have been something wrong with it from the beginning... Thanks for sharing..

I agree, I just hope it wasn't something on part such as the humidity level. It was the first nymph I saw emerging from an ooth and my excitement was soon replaced as I realized it wasn't going to get out of the ooth. Hopefully I'll catch another hatching soon.

Ranitomeya said:
When hatching from an ootheca, the mantis must first escape the shell of the egg as a pronymph and then crawl out of the ootheca. Once it's outside the ootheca, it has to shed the exoskeleton of its pronymph stage in order to become a nymph of the first instar. It has to emerge from the old exoskeleton within minutes after initiating ecdysis in order to come out successfully without any structural deformation. If any molt takes too long, the new exoskeleton begins to harden beneath the old exoskeleton and the rigidity causes it to lose the ability to complete ecdysis. If a molt takes over an hour, you can generally make the assumption that they're stuck and will not be able to molt successfully. We are unfortunately unable to help them due to the fact that they need to undergo a series of special muscle contractions in order to molt now just the outer exoskeleton, but also the lining of their tracheal system. If you were to forceably remove a mantis from its old exoskeleton before it's managed to get the lining of its tracheal system out, it would be unable to breathe and would end up dying.

Many thanks for the write-up, very informative and something I've never read before.

Confirms that if I helped it from the ooth, that would not have helped anything for sure.

idologrl · Jan 24, 2015

I had a couple that did that with my bipapilla..Now that I've decided that is what they are after so many different identifications.. Good luck with yours..

MantidBro · Jan 25, 2015

that happened to a few of mine during the hatching process. It was quite humid too. Im not sure why they sometimes get stuck.

CosbyArt · Jan 25, 2015

MantidBro said:
that happened to a few of mine during the hatching process. It was quite humid too. Im not sure why they sometimes get stuck.

Thanks for writing your experiences with this problem too. If anything I'd venture to guess mine is too humid, but with the extremely low humidity due to winter better safe than sorry.

agent A · Jan 25, 2015

its very common for some nymphs to die hatching

thats why the ooths contain so many eggs

Dead nymph in hatching phase

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