Chinese abdomen is bent.

[pedro92]

My chinese mantis just molted and was really fat and now the abdomen is kinda skinny and it is bending in a 90 degree angle when it hangs upside down.

Why is it doing this? this is the second time this has happened and when the last one molted after the bent abdomen a bubble appeared and mantis died. And when should the mantis start eating again. I tried a small cricket but it got in a threat pose and ran away. I will post pictures later.

 

[joossa]

I usually wait a day or two after a mantid has molted to begin feeding again.

Is the bent portion of the abdomen really loose? Like to the point where it automaticlly swings down when the mantis goes upside-down? I have seen this in a couple wild mantis that I have collected. They were all at about L3-L4 and once they molted again the problem was gone. Keep a close eye on it and try feeding it in a couple days.

 

[Kruszakus]

Well, this brings a new meaning to a phrase "get bent".

Yeah - I had the same problem, but the abdomen was always straight after the final molt, so I was not so worried.

 

[Rick]

I've seen this a couple times and it doesn't fix itself. Didn't seem to harm the mantis though.

 

[Precious]

I run into this sometimes and, while it can be creepy looking, it doesn't present a problem.