floppy abdomen?

[Norlin]

Two of my L5 Chinese mantis have a floppy abdomen. Basically, when they hang upside down, there is a crease right behind where their back legs meet their bodies. The abdomen hang straight down, and if they're facing face down towards the ground, the abdomen flops towards their head. Anyone see this before? I figured they wouldn't make it long, but they're eating fine and seem to be getting by.

 

[agent A]

seen it and the area behind the fold fattened but not in front and the thing died

 

[womantis]

had this happen to one of my mantids who died a few weeks later...(it was a chinese subadult)

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Back when I was breeding Chinese I kept 15 in their own deli's and about half of them did the same thing once they reached L3-4 or so, one or two corrected it on their own, not all of them that had it died but a few did, and when it was discussed we found it was happening to a few people not just me? Never put a finger on what it was though, but it seems to be common in captive bred/raised Chinese.

 

[Rick]

I've seen this but only with that species. Not sure what causes it.

 

[Norlin]

I've seen it in about 5 of them now, none of them have died yet, though none have molted yet either. With about half of them, when I really plump them up with food, it seems to not flop any more, but the rest are still all floppy. I'll see if it goes away with the molt, assuming they make it past that.

 

[sueb4653]

one of my chinese was doing this this morning but seems healthy enough and is eating

 

[massaman]

I think this could be a problem when they are adults if it becomes a female but not sure on how it would effect a male being when the female gets heavy with eggs this could cause the female to eggbound I think!

 

[eyes]

I had one that did this for a few days but then stopped doing it. I think it is a camouflage technique they can use (ie. I think they do it on purpose; like playing dead).

However, I had another one that did it and kept doing it all the time. She was eating and fine but eventually her exoskeleton cracked at the crease. I believe she started doing it because her enclosure was too small when she was younger. Later, in a larger enclosure she didn't stop doing it but maybe the enclosure was still too small. The crack wasn't bad enough to kill her and I let her go hoping she would do better outside.

So my theory is if they do it once in a while it's fine because they're just acting normal but if they do it all the time then it's because their cage is or was too small.

 

[gripen]

I have seen this in wild mantids to. It has nothing to do with captivity.

 

[Norlin]

I have seen them curl their abdomen intentionally, such as when doing a threat pose as a nymph, however this is a definite crease and is there all the time when they're hanging upside down or facing the ground. It flops down like on a hinge. They're still eating fine but I want to see if it goes away with a molt. I think there may be something to be said about small enclosure as the ones that are in smaller containers seem to have it more frequently than those in larger containers.

 

[sueb4653]

Is this what you talking about with the chinese floppy abd. mine has been doing this for a few days

 

[massaman]

I had one do that the other day and it molted fine and few days later it develloped this condition and was kept in a 24x24 net cube cage!

 

[Norlin]

sue, that picture is exactly what they look like, I have several like that, none have molted yet since becoming like that, but none of them seem to be behaving differently (eating etc.)

 

[sueb4653]

yea mine is eating also -strange

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I have had this happen only once with one of mine and it was a nymph that moved too soon to the ceiling after shedding. I feel it could be a shedding problem that can occur where the mantis moves too quickly to the ceiling of the enclosure and gravity takes effect. This is one of the reasons I think it is super important to let a mantis shed and rest undisturbed till it is properly hardened. With my boy the problem was fixed in future sheddings where he properly rested instead of running around like a twit. I like using triangle net cages for my Chinese mantises since they seem to create such an ideal shedding position.

 

[JackTopus]

hi, sorry to bring an old thread back, but this currently just happened to my mantis. it molted 2 days ago, leaving a bad leg however. i fed him today and now has this floppy abdomen too.

if i keep feeding it till completly stuff, would that fix the floppiness since it may make it completly swollen? or is that just a bad idea and just adding more weight.

 

[Rick]

I read an interesting bit on this condition on another site. What was suggested was to remove the option of hanging. Change up the enclosure so the mantis can only sit on top of a surface or at a slight angle so the abdomen cannot bend down. Feed well to help stiffen the abdomen. The author stated that occasionally this will fix the issue.

 

[Norlin]

I stuff mine fully and with about half of the ones with the issue (6 have it currently) the abdomen puffed out straight. None of them have molted yet, so I'm still not sure if it'll fix, but I'll update as soon as one molts or dies.