Black, crispy leg.

[pak-40]

I have an adult female orchid mantis with a black, crispy leg. It happend overnight. I noticed it before I wet to work this morning. When I took her out to look at it, the leg just broke off. It felt like a small twig or something. It does not seem like a fungus or bacterial infection as those would be soft and moist. It seems to me that the leg just "died". She seems to be fine otherwise and actually caught a moth this morning. Does anyone have any ideas as to what have caused this?

I do keep the humidity consistently high..about 65-70%

 

[Asa]

When did it last molt? It may have happened then.

 

[pak-40]

She moulted into an adult about 3 weeks ago. The leg was fine yesterday night. I had her out so my daughter could hold her.

 

[Asa]

Strange, maybe its leg got caught on the lid when you were opening it?

 

[OGIGA]

I can't even imagine how that would happen so fast. Even if a cricket attacked the back leg, I would expect several days before something like that happening.

 

[pak-40]

I ended up putting her in the freezer tonite. The "blackness" had spread into the petal on the leg and further up the leg. She appeared very weak and lethargic so I put her out of her misery As I said before, the affected area was very dry. It was like it had burned or something.

On a ligher note, one of my other female orchids laid an ooth tonite.

 

[OGIGA]

Aww, sad...

 

[Asa]

Sorry

It was definitely a bacterial/fungal infection.