what causes it?
as the weeks progressed, what it turned out being were the beginning stages of horse worm :/
you know what? to be very honest. im not even exactly sure. i can tell you that, whenever i placed a cup of water next to the vent of the enclosure, the abdomen would begin to pull the mantis towards the vent. if the mantis would try to move away, it will pull it back and keep along side water. but does not emerge. (im assuming it has to wait until it’s a full adult?) you can see something black moving thru the exoskeleton of the mantis. the mantis stops eating as well, i think it will wait until it’s absolutely starving then eat only one fly. that abdomen doesn’t ever flatten, it was pretty puffy without the mantis eating. it will continue to poop like normal but it would every now and then shoot out clear liquid from its anus. i forgot to mention that when the mantis is pulled to the vent where the water is, while keeping it planted there, every like 45 mins or so the mantis a abdomen will drop completely down and anus touches the enclosure. when the mantis is still you can also see something peeking in and out of its anus but it’s very small. when it starts it look clear color, then it turns like a yellowish color, then slowly it turns black.
