Eye damage during molting?

[Findarato]

One of my Hierodulas molted yesterday after a week of not eating and just sitting around on one spot. When he started to move strangely, I suspected it was time and I watched him closely. All was normal, and he was hanging upside down suspended only by his old skin (as is usual). Then I noticed (and wondered) a drop like water on his eye. Since the mantis wasn't wet, it couldn't have been water but hemolymph. Because of his posture the drop grew and fell, giving room for another.

Now he is freshly molted, acting normal, but his eye is black and looks like swollen. Has anyone seen this before? I did not touch him during or right after molting, and he did not fall.

I was thinking maybe his old skin could be removed from his eye only by damaging the new skin underneath out of some reason. Since he will molt 2 times until being adult, I think this will not be permanent, but it was interesting (and a bit scary) to watch. Not sure if he now sees with that eye, but I suppose he will be able to catch his food still.

 

[lancaster1313]

I had a Tenodera sinensis with the same problem at her subadult molt, it was both eyes that were bleeding. She molted to adult but one eye still had a mark.

 

[Ntsees]

Even if it isn't able to catch food, you can hand feed it. Regarding the damage during molt, it sometimes happen so make sure that the mantid is molting in a spot that has space. And yeah, since it isn't an adult yet, the next molt should heal the damage.

 

[Findarato]

Hand feeding would not be easy with that one, because he is quite a nervous one and food has to be offered to him from the right angle, otherwise he seems to be scred or whatever. He would just try to get around it and climb on the tweezer.

And he had plenty of space, he molted under a leaf of the small tree that overwinters in my room. This tree I use now for each mantis at a time to spend time outside their enslosures. So to say, some place to roam free for a while. I put him there yesterday once I realised he was going to molt (he had started wiggling around). so there was no obstacle or anything with sharp edges nearby. I took some pictures of him which I will post once I save them on my PC.

I tried to feed him this afternoon, but he did not grab the half cricket I held before his 'nose', he just ate some of it until he walked away again. But I won't hold it for half an hour in the same position for him if he just eats without grabbing the food. I will wait until he is really hungry. The eye wound does not really bother him though. so far he is climbing around from one leaf to the other and interested in looking out the window or so it seems. Spoiled mantis.

 

[Rick]

Was it the eye or was it just collecting on the eye due to the eye being the low point on his body?

 

[Findarato]

Was it the eye or was it just collecting on the eye due to the eye being the low point on his body?

It was the eye, I have pic showing that (will post it when I manage to upload it to imageshack which went wrong yesterday. the eye stopped leaking when he got into upright poition later, and now it is black on that spot. but he ate a cricket this morning and acts normal.

 

[Findarato]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Ntsees]

Interesting. Like you say, there was enough room for it to molt. There should have been no damage done at all. I recall some members on this forum mention that it sometimes happen to the Chinese mantid(either that or I probably interpreted it wrong). This is making me curious to find out the cause.

 

[ismart]

I have had a few instances of this happening. It's usually caused by the mantis bumping it's head into something quite often prior to a molt.

 

[Findarato]

I have had a few instances of this happening. It's usually caused by the mantis bumping it's head into something quite often prior to a molt.

This could be an explanation. That particular mantis has the habit of running around the mesh ceiling of his enclosure, so it might have happened he bumped his head. But he seems to do alright now,and his next molt should heal his black eye.