Eye Spots

[padkison]

One of my Carolina manitds has dark spots on each eye. They appear to be growing on on the surface. Creeps me out. Anyone see this before?

 

[Rick]

Seen it a million times in many different kinds of mantids. Never seemed to bother any of mine. I have a h. mem right now that has them almost covering the whole eye on both sides. She does just fine.

 

[joossa]

Wow that looks scary! Mine do get black spots, but they are really light in color, and appear inside the eye not on the surface and are more cloudy-looking. The spots appear right around the death of my adult mantids.

 

[OGIGA]

That's creepy looking!!! I've only seen what joossa just described.

 

[Rick]

One of mine:

 

[buddhistsoldier88]

looks like it would impair their vision...wonder why it doesnt....and does anyone know the cause of it?

 

[pizzuti]

I think it just happens when they are very old and starting to die off piece by piece.

It might hurt their vision a little, but since they have compound eyes all they see is movement, not images, and they might be able to compensate for some obstruction.

 

[Ian]

There is a very good reason why this happens. When the light levels drop, their eyes fill with darker colour pigment, usually looking black in colour. By doing this, more light is absorbed, which will help to increase their vision.

 

[Rick]

There is a very good reason why this happens. When the light levels drop, their eyes fill with darker colour pigment, usually looking black in colour. By doing this, more light is absorbed, which will help to increase their vision.

That's not what this is. These spots do not go away and are not to be confused with the darkening of the eyes at night. I have seen these spots grow over the eyes of mantids of all ages.

 

[Asa]

There is a very good reason why this happens. When the light levels drop, their eyes fill with darker colour pigment, usually looking black in colour. By doing this, more light is absorbed, which will help to increase their vision.

That is correct, one of the reasons you don't see it that often.