I realized yesterday that one of the Tenodera Sinensis nymphs (stage L1) has been puking a lot. Each time I feed her, she pukes the food up. The others don't do that. They eat then poop instead of puke. I realized that this particular one had no poop in her container at all which is odd. Having observed her often, I have noticed that the last couple of days she's had a piece of poop attached to her abdomen that seems to have hardened and won't come off. Then I wondered, what if it's not poop? What if it's just an issue she had when molting and now her abdomen has hardened, like mantids' wounds do (like when they lose their feet, the foot turns black and hardens, falls off. Though instead of falling off it stays there, because I don't think the abdomen would fall off as they don't use it to walk and it's not often touched)? She has been sliding her abdomen across the paper towel in her container, as if trying to remove it. I also tried myself but with no success. I feel that this one is probably going to die.
Then I realized that I'd seen it this, before, with S.I.R. and Majesty.
S.I.R.'s abdomen hardened a month before her death, and about the same for Majesty. Both had a bad smell and both were puking and not pooping.
S.I.R.'s abdomen about two weeks before she died:
And I don't have pictures of Majesty's abdomen when it was happening but it looked like S.I.R.'s, even a bit worse, as it went down to even her reproductive organs.
So basically I think the cause of these deaths is the hardening of their abdomens, which makes it so they aren't able to defecate and all they consume is left inside their body unless they puke, and it eventually leads to death.
I have no idea what causes this but I will be keeping an eye on it so I'm able to come to some conclusion.
I knew Majesty seemed to have died too soon...
Then I realized that I'd seen it this, before, with S.I.R. and Majesty.
S.I.R.'s abdomen hardened a month before her death, and about the same for Majesty. Both had a bad smell and both were puking and not pooping.
S.I.R.'s abdomen about two weeks before she died:
And I don't have pictures of Majesty's abdomen when it was happening but it looked like S.I.R.'s, even a bit worse, as it went down to even her reproductive organs.
So basically I think the cause of these deaths is the hardening of their abdomens, which makes it so they aren't able to defecate and all they consume is left inside their body unless they puke, and it eventually leads to death.
I have no idea what causes this but I will be keeping an eye on it so I'm able to come to some conclusion.
I knew Majesty seemed to have died too soon...
