2 Dead Adult Males with 12 hours

[mantisboy]

Yesterday afternoon when I came home I noticed 1 of my males had died. I remove all my mantids from their housings in the mornings to roam on house plants, take in a little water, or as with my males fly around a little bit. Yesterday morning was no different than any other as all the mantids appeared to be in good health. I keep a stock of flies that I catch in home made traps and after a quick 50 second trip to the freezer, fed them to the mantids before heading off to a meeting.

Late last night I noticed one of the mantids climbing down from a perch bar in his housing, his movement were slow and shaky. I took him out of his housing and he started circling with his head held low...not a good sign. I misted him heavily which stopped the circling, reviving him for a short while, and offered him a water soaked Q-tip. He gave the Q-tip a death clutch and was either drinking or biting it for about 5 minutes. Alas, it was more than evident his demise was soon at hand, so I placed him in the freezer.

The only thing I noticed with both these adult males that I caught a couple of weeks ago, was the lower 1/3 of their abdomens appeared flat. I bred both of them last week in an effort to kick start my females into laying ooths (Got my first ooth 2 days ago..yes!). My original 3 males abdomens which I have had for a month are very symmetrical as they tapper down. However, I am now noticing that one of the remaining 3 "Leonidas" is starting to take on that flat spot.

Is this a sign of the end of a male's life cycle? These are wild Religiosa

 

[Nepfreak]

It could have been a parasitic fly, if you catch them wild...

 

[LauraMG]

May have just been their time. Adult males don't live as long. They're meant to breed and die Sorry for your losses

 

[Rick]

It could have been a parasitic fly, if you catch them wild...

It isn't that. Nothing here leads me to think that is the case.

Sounds like they should have been fed more if the abdomen was flat. That or it is just their time. If they're wild caught it is near the end of their season.

 

[mantisboy]

It isn't that. Nothing here leads me to think that is the case.

Sounds like they should have been fed more if the abdomen was flat. That or it is just their time. If they're wild caught it is near the end of their season.

It's weird, my other males and females are just fine so it wasn't a food or water issue. Only the bottom 3rd of their abdomens was a little flatter than the upper 2/3rds. I give them a variety of butterflies, mosquito hawks, 1" hoppers, or 3-4 for flies and that's on an every other day basis. Most cases they will leave a fly or two in their housing for an additional day. As well, I spray them and the leaves of the house plants and let them hang out for an hour every morning in an attempt to simulate morning dew. Plus it's cool having them fly around while I gear up to start my day, I just have to keep a piece of paper over my coffee cup.

What sucks is that I was planning on shipping out one of the males to Seattle 79 to breed with a female he just found. I even took a photo of "Spock" downing a hopper in the morning, by 11:00 pm Wednesday night I was putting him in the freezer.

Don't really know much about the other male that died other than when I left he was fine, 3.5 hours later he was dead. Since these were the last 2 mantids I had found I did notice early on that that their abdomens were not exactly cigar shaped like my others. All i can think of is it's just a coincidence or some sort of blockage.

One of my remaining 3, Leonidas' abdomen is taking on the same shape. I am going to post pictures a little later today.

Are there any signs that a mantid is coming close to the end of their life cycle or do they just literally drop dead?

 

[PeterF]

I have lost 2 females and a male this week. The male was recently caught, the females I have had a few weeks.

I know it's reaching "their time". But I also haven't gotten any oothes yet, so I am a little worried about actual fertilization. I have watched the boys poking their mates in the sides of the abdomen. But, I guess I didn't know what I was doing once either.

I find your comment about deformation interesting.

Of the dozen or so mantises we caught this week almost half were misshapen in the abdomen or last half inch of their wings, both males and females. As though they had trouble molting. It is very dry here, so that's not unreasonable. I also noticed that they are smaller (shorter in length) than the adults from a month ago. Also with a higher population of greens that seen earlier.

 

[mantisboy]

I have lost 2 females and a male this week. The male was recently caught, the females I have had a few weeks.

I know it's reaching "their time". But I also haven't gotten any oothes yet, so I am a little worried about actual fertilization. I have watched the boys poking their mates in the sides of the abdomen. But, I guess I didn't know what I was doing once either.

I find your comment about deformation interesting.

Of the dozen or so mantises we caught this week almost half were misshapen in the abdomen or last half inch of their wings, both males and females. As though they had trouble molting. It is very dry here, so that's not unreasonable. I also noticed that they are smaller (shorter in length) than the adults from a month ago. Also with a higher population of greens that seen earlier.

Well as I noted before "Leonidas" was the next male in line that I had bred with a female to die. Although he appeared normal his abdomen was telling me the end was near, no suprise at all to find him barely alive this morning even though he was fine last night. So, now I know what to look for when a male comes to the end of his life cycle. They seem to get a little more thirsty than usual, their lower abdomens flatten out a little and appear dry or discolored. My 2 remaining males have not bred yet, they need to hang out for my sub-adult female and one more breeding session with other 2 females....hope they make it another couple of weeks.

 

[Seattle79]

I was doing some more thinking last night of what is going on with your males. Maybe some of your males were poisoned. You had the outside of your house/property sprayed not too long ago. Some of the sprays exterminators use is a neurotoxin. This toxin works on "contact," meaning it is not airborne. One example is - you spray a section of sidewalk. Any kind of bug that walks on this area is now infected but will not die right away. The theory behind this is that once that bug is infected it will travel back to its colony, like an ant or roach colony, and infect others. The neurotoxin severly dehydrates the insect and will die of thirst but also the neuromuscular system would be infected and die of convulsions.

So, I thought maybe you or the kids were outside in the yard playing or doing yard work, then came back in the house and handled the Mantids without washing your hands first. This could have made some of the Mantids sick. Also, I think you said you captured flies in the corner of your yard away from where the house was sprayed. Some of the flies could have been infected and flew over to this spot where you captured them. The flies at this time might have not displayed any signs of sickness. Your Mantids may have been sick from eating some of these flies.

The way you described Spock and how he was acting seemed fishy to me. Maybe the other males died of old age and were not infected. Spock seemed healthy and thriving, then a few hours later doing very poorly. This is just a theory and I could be completely wrong. I just wanted to share my thoughts. Hopefully it is their time to go and not die prematurely from being poisoned.

-Kevin