Mysterious death

[Melophile]

My adult male, who molted to on June 13, has passed D: Yesterday, he looked lethargic. I thought he may be needed some food, so I put two small crickets in his enclosure, and he caught and ate both of them. I came home from work and he was still alive, but when I woke up this morning, he lay on the bottom of his enclosure on his back with all his legs curled up

Why did he die?! He was feeding perfectly fine, he's not that old. I was waiting for my female to lay her unfertilized ooth to try and her, but now I am unable to do so

 

[Sticky]

What kind was he?

 

[Melophile]

Parasphendale agrionina. Budwing mantis.

 

[CosbyArt]

Sadly it is just the nature of it all, and all you will know is guesses at best. How old was the male? Seems sometimes if the mantis is slow to molt it still ages the same and will not be alive long as a adult.

One trick to extending the life of a mantis is said to be feeding them less and keeping them cooler, makes them molt slowly. Seemed to just make my the mantids I had stay as nymphs longer, but also have a short life as an adult.

 

[Domanating]

I've seen so many unknown deaths like that. We can only guess, really.

Most of the time I just consider the possibility of malfunctioning or deformed organs.

Molts are stressful events. Even though there's no signs of physical deformation it doesn't mean there isn't an issue inside. After all, the insides grow too with a molt so I assume things can go just as wrong there too.

Excluding the usual possible causes that are mentioned here over and over again (infections, fungus, pesticides, etc...) this one is my best guess.

 

[Vespertino]

I'm sorry for your loss, Mel. It really sucks loosing them

 

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Were you feeding the same crickets to any other critters? Sometimes my weaker mantids get sick from crickets while the stronger ones do not. If it was a bad batch of crickets, a weak mantid would definitely have trouble.

So sorry for your loss.

 

[MantidBro]

I'm sorry for your loss. I've lost a lot of mantids to crickets, I've stopped using them because of it and have had a lot less deaths. Crickets are just filthy, they're riddled with bad bacteria. If a single cricket dies in the enclosure, it's almost like you have to clean out the entire thing and then wait a few days on top of it, because the live crickets most likely fed on the deceased cricket and now those live crickets have that bacteria in them, and on them. I refuse to feed my mantids crickets no matter what.

 

[birdiefu]

Sorry he was gone so quickly after reaching adulthood You probably will never know for sure, but like other mentioned I would stay away from the crickets if possible with other mantids to be on the safe side.