Molt to adult Chinese Mantis

[Darth Mantis]

One of my male Chinese Mantises but the tip of the end of his abdomen is not symmetrical and there is a sort of greenish blob looking thing on one side. Its hard to get a look at it and I cant mange to get a picture to post but I was wondering if anyone knew if its a problem like some sort of wound or blood filled bubble or if it was a part of his reproductive organs or something like that.

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

Can you post a picture? It could be his anus is prolapsed I have seen where there is a greenish blob and it gets bigger and that is prolapse. 

 

[Darth Mantis]

I cant get a picture to post but that does seem like what it is.

 

[Synapze]

Hi Darth - I've seen this before in adult males... it usually doesn't end well. Is he showing any interest in eating? Is his abdomen abnormally full/swollen? 

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

I hope it isn't tho because that sounds like a painful problem. I am soo sorry if it's the case! Best wishes for recovery from me!

 

[Darth Mantis]

No he seems normal as far as I can tell he eats everything I give him he actually is a little thin if anything but I think he will fatten up when I feed him more but he has already ate a good bit so I didn't want to load him full all at once and hes been pooping normally maybe less than he used to but since he does have to grow anymore i figured he just wouldn't poop as much but he still poops a plenty. He may move a little differently like maybe slightly sluggish but not really its hard to tell. He has also flown a few times so he seems pretty good as far as that goes (not flown far though more like a power hop) although when I take him out of his cage he doesn't really seem to explore as much as he used to (crawls around less) but that may be because its gotten cold and he likes the warmth of my skin.

 

[Darth Mantis]

As a side note I wanted to try and mate him with a female but it seems like that would probably be a bad idea. Maybe for both the male and female.

 

[Synapze]

If you search past posts you'll find many examples of what you may be seeing. I'd definitely be careful not to overfeed, especially now. I'd suggest giving him smaller portions, even when his abdomen looks thin. 

From reading through the archives (search terms protrusion or prolapse) I noticed that this problem seems to (more often than not) relate to females.

I wouldn't try to mate him, especially if he's sluggish or you'll end up with a fat and happy female. His reproductive organs may be useless now anyway.

Glad to hear he's eating and pooping... that's encouraging. Hopefully more experienced keepers will chime in. 

Good luck!

 

[Mantis Lady]

My old mantis had something on her butt it looked like this: Hope it doesn't look like this with your mantis

 

[hysteresis]

When I think prolapse, that's what I see in my mind's eye. 

 

[Darth Mantis]

Its kinda like that buts its really hard to see because it doesn't stick out that far.

 

[Darth Mantis]

My only other male mantis that I really hoped would be healthy just molted and he had a horrible miss-molt I think he fell. Not so bad that I think its life threatening unless one of the crippled limbs dies and becomes infected or toxic to the rest of the mantis but both his back legs are completely crippled in such a way that they are completely useless and seem like they will just get in his way when he tries to move and if hes hanging from somethings im not sure if he can without falling. So far he hasn't tried to move because I think his wings might still be drying. As a side note he has the same thing my other male had in pretty much the same spot but its bigger. I think he will be ok ill just have to feed him by hand and possibly make him a special container.

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

That is so strange how they both have it!

 

[Darth Mantis]

The second one seems to have fallen during his molt so its hard to tell how much damage that caused besides the two broken limbs.

 

[Darth Mantis]

Ok so both of his back legs got bend while drying and now they just flop back and forth freely above the knee with gravity is there anything I can put on his leg like a tiny splint or clear nail polish or something that would make that part of his leg stiff again? I figure nail polish would be deadly. If his leg was just stiff were it is bend he could use the legs. Not as well or as easily as if they weren't messed up but he at least could use them a little.

 

[MantisGirl13]

I hope that the mismolted mantis will be ok. 

The strange thing you are talking about on the male's abdomen sounds pretty normal to me...

- MantisGirl13

 

[Darth Mantis]

I can take care of him I think but I need to buy a new enclosure for him. One that I can turn into a handicap enclosure. He currently is sharing an enclosure with his brother but he needs special care where I take the lid off more and invert the container and such and thats kind of hard with his brother being so active in the other half of the enclosure. I lost him earlier in my room for a while when he escaped while I wasn't looking as I was occupied with trying to get his brother to hang on the lid so that his wings would finish drying correctly. I thought I had lost him and would step on him or something on accident because hes the same color as 70 percent of my room. Funny thing is I found him on my head and have no idea how he got there without me noticing him I only found him because I put my hand on my neck in frustration and stress and nearly crushed him. 

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

Thats funny. The guy was looking for his tall friend!

 

[hysteresis]

Now that's funny!