Infection, or just dying of old age?

[jfmantis]

Back in the fall of 2006, I had a medium sized--1.5 in (3.8 cm) long-- green Stagmomantis californica. She laid a fine ootheca that hatched today, but a couple days after laying, her abdomen started expanding sideways, and the expansion was brown. The expanded part got bigger until her abdomen was wider than it was tall. Then she died, unable to walk or climb.

Did she have some kind of infection expanding certain organs in the abdomen, or maybe the infection actually made the puffy things? Or is this just something that some mantises get when they die? All the other mantids I've had didn't do that when they died.

 

[jfmantis]

Just another question: If a mantis had a bacterial or fungal infection, and it lays an ootheca, can the bacteria or fungi be passed into the ootheca and then into the nymphs? Because if so, then if the mantis in my last post had an infection pre-ootheca, then maybe the nymphs will be in trouble.

 

[Rick]

I really don't think anyone knows what the true issue behind something like that is. People throw around the term bacterial infection or whatever but don't truly know. I've seen old mantids have all sorts of issues before they died. If the nymphs hatched out and appear fine they should be normal.

 

[jfmantis]

Thanks, the nymphs appear to be perfectly fine, although they are only 1 day old and they are very small so it's hard to tell.

 

[Asa]

I bet it was just old age.