bent abdomen

[ninjaboy1988]

My mantids abdomen is bent back when he hangs upside down. Is it healthy?

 

[PhilinYuma]

My mantids abdomen is bent back when he hangs upside down. Is it healthy?

I doubt that it is healthy or natural, but it is certainly common, particularly among Chinese mantids. If you enter "bent abdomen" in the search box, you'll find a lot of folks who have exoperienced the same problem. Sometimes it corrects itself when the mantis has a full crop, sometimes it goes away after the next molt; usually, it isn't life threatening, but no one seems to know why it occurs, how to prevent it or how to correct it.

Oh, if you have a shrine to the Great Mantis Goddess (BbHN) you might want to try the purple candle with the yellow horizontal stripes for this. It can't do any harm.

 

[RevWillie]

FYI

I recently saw a wild 2.5" Carolina mantis whose abdomen bent 20 degrees to the side about halfway down it's length. Saw it a couple of weeks and the angle didn't change.