Bad moult - Lost one leg down to a stump, 1 deformed leg

benmoore · Dec 19, 2006

Ahhh one of my african mantids has just had a really ugly moult the poor thing - I have no idea what happened but I came back in to my room today to find she had moulted but she was missing one leg (only had maybe 3mm left - a small stump) and another was VERY defromed - all bent up. These are both on the right hand side of the body so she is left with two rear legs only on one side of her body. She also hags at a weird angle now as a result of this.

My immediate concern is that she will have difficulty hunting as sneaking up on prey will be VERY difficult. However I guess if worse comes to worse I can feed with tweezers.

But assuming I can keep her alive till she next needs to moult... what would you say her chances are of a successful moult? Also how long will it take for the missing leg to grow back... and will the deformed leg straighten out?

Thank you for any help,

Ben

Rick · Dec 19, 2006

Hard to say. Can you get a pic of the mantis? That would help.

Alex 1 · Dec 23, 2006

A mantis can probably molt fine if it's missing just one leg, but one missing and one deformed is a longshot. It'll probably fall, but good luck anyway. The deformed leg will either stay deformed or just fall off. I had a dessicata male mismolt with a bad leg as an adult(bent upward). It eventually bent back down somehow, but was still unusable. It eventually fell off.

sk8erkho · Jan 3, 2007

That has happened to three of my Chinese nymphs even after misting the cage a couple times a day. :? (large tank) Could it be the sized of the tank perhaps not allowing the correct amount of moisture needed for the molt?

I was thinking when the next ooth hatches keeping them in a smaller space. I did not have access to the containers nor the information I have now. Thanks to all of you guy s here I am far more knowledgeable now for the last ooth batch than the three before. 8) And it 's actually, two last ooths, as she is getting old and just managed to lay one more ooth. She falls a lot now but still moves great for an old lady!!!! :? Back to the leg thing, yes they were born with that leg just hanging up in the air like that. Very difficult to see. One lost the fight to another mantis. Probably best for him. the other shocked me so I put him down without thinking. The last one I am giving a chance because I am hoping he will be okay.