Female Carolina the other day

[clemsonfight]

I was at Clemson University the other day, my school, which is in a GREAT rural enviornment, full of wild-life near a lot of pastures.

Anyway, I found on the sidewalk on the way to a class a female Carolina mantis, she was green and I almost stepped on her because I thought she was a leaf.

Anyway I picked her up carefully, and immediately noticed somethign was wrong. She had brown goo all over her face, some kind of liquid and was barely stumbling around on my hand.

I set her on a tree and let her go but I knew she woudlnt' make it much longer.

Anyone have any clue what could be the problem?

For the record, I love Clemson. It's got more Carolinas than Chinese, at least it honors our state insect

 

[Rick]

Could be any number of things. She might have been attacked by a bird or maybe even lightly stepped on.

 

[clemsonfight]

I guess. made me kinda sad though lol. She didnt look squished but her eyes also looked "empty" so maybe she was stepped on.