Ocelotbren
Well-known member
I have a male and a female Chinese mantis and the male successfully molted to what I think may be L7 last week. He has fairly prominent wing buds but being new to this, I don't know if they are prominent enough for him to molt to adult next time or not.
Anyway, the female molted to the same instar last night, but it appears that she fell. In the morning, I saw her exuvia hanging from the lid where she apparently molted, and saw her clinging to a stick below it, almost touching the ground. Uh oh.
Her forearms seem to be okay and her front two back legs seem to be normal and functioning, but her back two back legs not so much. One of them she almost seems like she wants to use, because she can put it as a fairly normal angle and put her foot on the stick, but I'm not positive it's actually gripping it. The other one is quite messed up and unless she actively holds it up while hanging from the stick, it dangles at a very awkward angle. Lastly, her body SEEMS okay although I'm not convinced yet. She may have a slight kink at the joint between the abdomen and the thorax, if that's possible, but I am not positive it isn't just how she's sitting right now. However, I assume only time will tell if she has any internal damage.
I will post a picture perhaps tomorrow when she's ready to be handled unless she moves to a better position tonight that would show her issues better in a picture.
I know that it is possible to molt successfully from two feet although probably riskier, so if she doesn't have any internal damage, is it recommended to let her try it?
Also, this was her first molt in her new, much larger (12"x12"18") enclosure. She chose a spot on the lid nowhere near anything that she could grab onto after completing the molt. Is this normal? I admit there aren't a lot of things to grab onto when hanging from the lid, but there are a few obvious choices and it didn't even occur to me that she might not pick them. There's quite a bit of open space - should I add more sticks and objects to create more gripping surfaces to move to after molting from the lid, to prevent this from happening again?
Feeling a bit upset about this since it is my first time experiencing a mismolt. Seeing her struggle with her mangled back legs is pretty hard on me and I'm feeling guilty for not having provided more molting options. I was watching her all day yesterday, knowing she was going to molt soon, and she spent a lot of time hanging next to a vertical stick, which I considered one of the obvious molting locations. And yet, this morning the exuvia was dangling nowhere near that spot, or any other gripping surface for her to transition to.
Thanks in advance for your opinions everyone. I'll post a picture as soon as I can get a good one.
Anyway, the female molted to the same instar last night, but it appears that she fell. In the morning, I saw her exuvia hanging from the lid where she apparently molted, and saw her clinging to a stick below it, almost touching the ground. Uh oh.
Her forearms seem to be okay and her front two back legs seem to be normal and functioning, but her back two back legs not so much. One of them she almost seems like she wants to use, because she can put it as a fairly normal angle and put her foot on the stick, but I'm not positive it's actually gripping it. The other one is quite messed up and unless she actively holds it up while hanging from the stick, it dangles at a very awkward angle. Lastly, her body SEEMS okay although I'm not convinced yet. She may have a slight kink at the joint between the abdomen and the thorax, if that's possible, but I am not positive it isn't just how she's sitting right now. However, I assume only time will tell if she has any internal damage.
I will post a picture perhaps tomorrow when she's ready to be handled unless she moves to a better position tonight that would show her issues better in a picture.
I know that it is possible to molt successfully from two feet although probably riskier, so if she doesn't have any internal damage, is it recommended to let her try it?
Also, this was her first molt in her new, much larger (12"x12"18") enclosure. She chose a spot on the lid nowhere near anything that she could grab onto after completing the molt. Is this normal? I admit there aren't a lot of things to grab onto when hanging from the lid, but there are a few obvious choices and it didn't even occur to me that she might not pick them. There's quite a bit of open space - should I add more sticks and objects to create more gripping surfaces to move to after molting from the lid, to prevent this from happening again?
Feeling a bit upset about this since it is my first time experiencing a mismolt. Seeing her struggle with her mangled back legs is pretty hard on me and I'm feeling guilty for not having provided more molting options. I was watching her all day yesterday, knowing she was going to molt soon, and she spent a lot of time hanging next to a vertical stick, which I considered one of the obvious molting locations. And yet, this morning the exuvia was dangling nowhere near that spot, or any other gripping surface for her to transition to.
Thanks in advance for your opinions everyone. I'll post a picture as soon as I can get a good one.
