Downed but not out

DrakeLineous · Oct 25, 2014

When this female had a bad molt I thought that was it for her, especially after reading all the stories about other mantids that fell while shedding. I was pretty surprised the next day when I saw that she had climbed to the top of the enclosure considering that she only had one good walking leg. Fast forward to now, about a week later, she's doing great and has fed quite a few times and is still climbing all over. Pretty far from just crawling around the bottom which I was expecting. I'm not sure if adding more sticks and plants in there would make it more difficult for her to move around what with three bum legs and all or if it would make keeping everything clean harder. I don't want her catching a fungus or mold or whatever in her current state.

Digger · Oct 25, 2014

Drake,

Seba - one of my Tenodera sinensis females - had a mismolt that left her in a very similar condition to this girl.

Her wings were badly deformed and "crumpled" and both back legs were badly crippled. But her head, thorax, raptors and abdomen were fine. After about 15 days, I decided to try an experiment and

have my prize stud - Gunnar - try to mate her. At first, the crumpled wings really confused him and he mounted and remounted in a "69" position. Clearly unworkable. But he figured it out perfectly after

that and inseminated her for about 2 hours. 11 days later she gave me an enormous first ooth. She was SO proud.

The one thing I recommend is putting a very soft material on the cage floor. I'm using an old fluffy cotton washcloth. Reason here is that she falls quite a lot due to her condition.

Here's a photo showing part of the damage:

http://www.nounpix.com/mantids/Seba_mismolt2.JPG

And here she is showing off her first ootheca (you can see she's beaming):

http://www.nounpix.com/mantids/Seba-first-ooth.JPG

DrakeLineous · Oct 25, 2014

She looks to be in better shape than mine. Now I'm wondering if a mantis molted again would it's bent parts straighten out. I've never actually heard of a one making it to another shed after being deformed by the last one in all of the stuff I've read. So I don't know if that is even possible

Sticky · Oct 25, 2014

I make little mantis blankets. That would be just right for her. I can email some pics to you if you like. Usually they are for very elderly mantids but they are nice for those like her too.

Extrememantid · Oct 25, 2014

DrakeLineous said:
She looks to be in better shape than mine. Now I'm wondering if a mantis molted again would it's bent parts straighten out. I've never actually heard of a one making it to another shed after being deformed by the last one in all of the stuff I've read. So I don't know if that is even possible

she's an adult, so she won't moult again.