Molting Complications

MantisTrainer · Nov 22, 2023

Hi everyone. My subadult male Tenodera sinensis, the one with floppy abdomen has been showing signs of heavy premolt for almost over a week now, I've been feeding him a housefly every couple of days to ensure that he doesn't go hungry. For the past couple of days, he's been trying to molt but every time he flexes his abdomen, it flops back down making it difficult if not impossible to molt. As of right now, he is hanging on the ceiling (which is at an angle) and for once, his abdomen isn't flopping. He's been in this position, pumping his abdomen since I got up but he still hasn't broken through his old exoskeleton. I'm at a loss of what to do, I'm afraid of intervening right now because I don't want to make his situation worse but he seems to be making no progress whatsoever.
side note: he last ate two houseflies on Monday.
any help is greatly appreciated.

MantisTrainer · Nov 23, 2023

He molted yesterday, but he ended up with shriveled wings and a curve in each of his back legs. He doesn't seem too disabled but he does have difficulty climbing(mostly upside down). He can walk but it's a bit awkward, he kind of drags himself along when he's upright. apart from that, I cannot tell if any other damage was brought about or if his floppy abdomen was corrected or not. Does anybody have suggestions about how I should care for him? I know that it's possible to care for a mismolted mantis but I've never done it myself. I have pictures if that is helpful. Thanks in advance!

MantisTrainer · Nov 26, 2023

By the way, His the end of his abdomen supposed to look like this? it never looked like this while he was a nymph.

jmantis · Sep 5, 2024

MantisTrainer said:
By the way, His the end of his abdomen supposed to look like this? it never looked like this while he was a nymph.

I came back to your posts as my guy is having a moment and you saved our butts with the eyeball/feeding suggestion. I was at work and came home to find him on the bottom of his enclosure mid molt, and now his abdomen looks like this. Since I’m insane and he couldn’t grip I taped his rear legs to the top to allow his wings to inflate. Did you ever find an answer to this?

MantisTrainer · Sep 7, 2024

I think that this is normal for male Chinese manties. It is probably there to help with mating. My Chinese mantis was able to live fine after his molt and he ate and behaved normally and lived for quite a long while which leads me to believe that this is a normal thing. Has he experienced any other issues during his final molt? Glad I was able to help!

jmantis · Sep 7, 2024

MantisTrainer said:
I think that this is normal for male Chinese manties. It is probably there to help with mating. My Chinese mantis was able to live fine after his molt and he ate and behaved normally and lived for quite a long while which leads me to believe that this is a normal thing. Has he experienced any other issues during his final molt? Glad I was able to help!

OH COOL! That makes sense now, I couldn’t find any helpful anatomy comparisons on google. The molt was horrible. Poor guy now has 3 bent/warped rear legs, a bent antenna, and I don’t think his wings will ever work correctly. I was crying while watching him finish his molt, I was so heartbroken for him. I cut up 3 BBF and he happily ate them today. He can walk perfectly fine but can’t climb very well. Did you ever end up modifying your enclosure to make it easier for your guy to move around? I was thinking of doing some short of diy path/ramp/stairs going up the side of his enclosure to the top. Any suggestions to make his quality of life the best I possibly can?

MantisTrainer · Sep 7, 2024

Mine came out with a slight bow to his back legs but not nearly as bad as how your poor little guy sounds. The best thing to do right now is probably to leave him be and let his exoskeleton harden, that will lower the risk of further injury. After a day or so I would suggest moving him to a smaller enclosure with a lower ceiling, still with enough room to let him move around a bit, though I don't know what enclosure your keeping him in currently. I used a stiff cross-stitching mesh from a craft store as a ramp for my aging female mantis when she couldn't climb well. some kind of stiff mesh or other such material should make a good ramp as long as it's not too smooth-that will make it harder to climb, especially when he gets older and his feet get weaker. If he can still eat and drink he should be fine as long as there is no internal damage brought on by the fall. If you can post pictures of his entire body and his current enclosure once his exoskeleton dries I might be able to give further advice. Hope he pulls through!

jmantis · Sep 8, 2024

Thank you for all of your advice and your well wishes to Mr Bug Man, sounds like he’s gonna be just fine. That is a fantastic suggestion! The home renovations begin tomorrow lol. I wanted to see what your opinion is. If I should make a change, or you know of something I didn’t mention please let me know!

His house right now is 8.5”x 8.75”x 11.75” with the wire mesh cut out of the top and replaced with fine mesh (butterfly net) and a shelf liner over the mesh. The substrate is sphagnum moss, eco earth, and coconut fibre with a living pothos plant and springtails. I mist occasionally with bottled water or when the substrate looks a bit dry. I’ll offer him water using an eye dropper a minimum of once a day.

Since the molting incident almost 3 days ago he has met the criteria you mentioned above for being okay. Then I realized he chewed off one of his broken feet and has a shorter back leg now. Hopefully it was for a good reason?

He has so much energy still! His wings are pretty, he‘s kinda flapped them a few times like he’s readjusting them.

Your suggestion last time worked. I appreciate you taking the time to offer your advice since you’ve been through this before.

MantisTrainer · Sep 9, 2024

He looks beautiful! I think the enclosure you have for him will do just fine as long as he doesn't fall down a lot. If you do observe him falling off of perches repeatedly like he's having trouble holding on, then I think it would be a good idea to move him to a smaller enclosure. I downsized my mantises' enclosure when they got really old and their grip started to loosen, but that shouldn't be a big worry right now as he just completed his final molt a few days ago.
I don't know why a mantis would be inclined to chew off one of their feet. But, like I said before, as long as he isn't falling a lot, chewing at other legs or otherwise doing things that put him at risk of further injury he should do OK.

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