Over-sticky Tarsus?

[KyleB]

I have an L4 Chinese Praying Mantis whose behavior is making me wonder. His tarsus' seem to stick more than the other mantids I have and he seems to have a hard time walking around on the ceiling of his enclosure. I have 32oz cups from Mantis Place with the plastic lids coated in a thin papery cover. He seems to really struggle with the lid in particular and there are times where he does strange jerky movements. 

I feel like I'm being paranoid because I just lost one of our 4 mantids after he vomited for several days. I have them in my elementary classroom. We had a funeral for him and during the ceremony the "pallbearer" lost his body out of the coffin the children made and we couldn't find it. This was at the same moment that another child was reading his eulogy. It was really hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. 

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Mantid-Tim]

That's normal and healthy. The tarsus makes contact with whatever surface its climbing  and there is a fluid exchange. That just means its a healthy mantis. When they get older they don't stick as well....

 

[Jdalt002]

Like Tim said, once they get larger or near adulthood they lose their grip on smooth surfaces because their little "feet hooks" on their tarsus get too large. Their back legs will also eventually need a better surface to grip. You'll have to either add some sticks or move them to a mesh enclosure. You could also take window mesh and cut a little rectangle to stick in the enclosure for them to climb on like a vertical ramp.