First molt!!

[chrisstpeter]

Charlie molted to day, he/she is now L2, yay! I'm sooo excited, it's just stupid, haha. But these are my first mantids, so I think it's excusable Unfortunately, I didn't witness it. I checked in on them just 10 minutes ago, and noticed charlie sitting next to his/her old skin. That's okay though, I still have crowbar and Teeny who are preparing to molt, so maybe I'll get to see one of them molt.

 

[thalassarche]

The first molt is always exciting. I missed my first mantis' molts for quite a while, but now that I have a larger collection, I'm more likely to catch one in the act.

Edit: Haha, just after writing this, I went to check on my nymphs and mist the ones who need extra humidity, and one of my Mesopteryx alata nymphs was just starting to molt!

 

[sally]

Yay! I still get thrilled when a molt goes well. Just wait til you see your mantis molt to an adult, so thrilling!

 

[chrisstpeter]

Update: Okay, so all 3 of my little guys have molted successfully now, yay! Which leads me to a question: how long does it take for their new exo to harden/ how long until it's safe to start introducing feeders into their enclosures again? Thanks guys!

 

[fleurdejoo]

Cute!

 

[lancaster1313]

Give it a day. The smaller nymphs harden faster. If nymph doesn't eat, remove the feeder and try the next day.

 

[chrisstpeter]

So I seem to have an MIA exoskeleton! At least one, but it looks like 2 of my 3 nymphs have molted. However, I cannot find their exoskeletons anywhere! I have sheet moss in the bottom of the containers, and due to a mishap involving one of my dogs, the containers got knocked down, so that would explain how the exos got knocked off of wherever they were hanging and why I couldn't see them. However, when I cleaned the enclosures out, I didn't find the exos in the moss either... maybe they got crushed when the enclosures got knocked down. Now, I WOULD just think that I was mistaken about the molt. Yeah, 2 of them are noticeably bigger, but that could just be my imagination. However, the one that was missing a leg now isn't. It's about 3/4 grown back, and from what I've read here on the forum, lost appendages only grow back with successive molts, so... I KNOW that HE at least molted. And if HIS exo is MIA, then the same thing could've happened to the one who I just think looks bigger. Interestingly, they are now about the same size as the other one who I was also sure had not molted, so maybe she just molted earlier than they did and hers disappeared as well, although I can't explain how HER exo went missing. Lol, I have no idea what's going on here anymore... I guess I'll figure out how old they all are when they develop wing buds

 

[sally]

It is so exciting when they molt well!