Krissim Klaw
Well-known member
I thought I would share an abdomen deformity I ran across with my male Stagmomantis carolina. My little story begins when I picked out a male Stagmomantis carolina to keep from one of my ootheca hatchings. He was only a couple instars old at the time. I was planning to keep a few nymphs for pets while the rest were being released. It is rather ironic that I ended up keeping this particular mantis to begin with. Originally I was planning to keep one of his brothers, a very robust individual who had managed to get a couple days ahead of his brothers when it came to sheddings. There was something about the personality however that made me choose instead to go with this boy. It is how he got his name, Fluke, since it was a bit of a fluke I kept him.
Even at only a few instars old, there was something that seemed ever so slightly off, but I brushed it off since he appeared to be eating and doing fine. Sadly it would be in the next couple sheddings that the problem would become more apparent. Outwardly you could see the jagged nature of the texture to his abdomen. There were also other problems that started to crop up. He started to have digestive troubles with vomit. I tried all the usual tricks to clear him, but nothing worked. It also became noticeble that his waste wasn't passing properly as his poop was about 1/2-1/3 the size of a normal mantis his age and he had a hard time putting on any weight.
I was hopeful with some extra TLC he might be able to make it, but sadly it wasn't in the cards. As he got older the problem seemed to become more pronounced and he didn't have the strength to initiate his last shedding, passing after he was long overdo.
As often as mantises can pass without us having any idea why, I always find it curious when there is a problem stark enough it is visible. I know I'm not the best at photographs, but I think I captured the essense of the deformity and I thought I would share the photos on the forum.
Rest in peace my sweet, sweet little Fluke.
Even at only a few instars old, there was something that seemed ever so slightly off, but I brushed it off since he appeared to be eating and doing fine. Sadly it would be in the next couple sheddings that the problem would become more apparent. Outwardly you could see the jagged nature of the texture to his abdomen. There were also other problems that started to crop up. He started to have digestive troubles with vomit. I tried all the usual tricks to clear him, but nothing worked. It also became noticeble that his waste wasn't passing properly as his poop was about 1/2-1/3 the size of a normal mantis his age and he had a hard time putting on any weight.
I was hopeful with some extra TLC he might be able to make it, but sadly it wasn't in the cards. As he got older the problem seemed to become more pronounced and he didn't have the strength to initiate his last shedding, passing after he was long overdo.
As often as mantises can pass without us having any idea why, I always find it curious when there is a problem stark enough it is visible. I know I'm not the best at photographs, but I think I captured the essense of the deformity and I thought I would share the photos on the forum.
Rest in peace my sweet, sweet little Fluke.
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