Refusing to eat *after* molting

[rcgordon]

I am a little new to this, so pardon me if I display some ignorance here.

We have a Budwing mantis, that we got a couple of months ago, not sure of the exact age. Her wings showed up with the most recent molt. They are not full-size so I assume it is a female -- unless it is a male and the wings will be full-sized after the next molt?

Anyhow, everything went perfectly in the molt as far as I could tell. I actually got to see it happen this time. The problem is that it was four days ago, and she has refused to eat since. She just looks at her prey, and if it gets too close she bats at it, the way she did before the molt. I have tried feeding her some honey several times, but after a little bit of that she just bats it away too. She even gave me her startle display at one point when she got irritated at the honey. This seems very unusual since she is usually very aggressive and goes after her prey.

Otherwise she seems normal. When I have her out she is very interested in her surroundings, likes crawling around on my hands and does not seem to lack energy. Just appetite.

Have others had this experience, and if so, is this something to worry about?

 

[Rick]

That is an adult female. It is normal not to eat for a few days after molting. ALso, you should not handle a mantis that has molted until about a week later.

 

[rcgordon]

OK, Plucky is back to eating now.

I noticed yesterday morning that she was moving around her cage more, in a different position every few hours, and I thought that might mean she was looking for food. When I dropped a waxworm in her cage, she went after it with her customary enthusiasm and made a lunge for it, but it was in an awkward place and she missed. While she sat there looking a bit stunned and probably trying to figure out where her meal was, it crawled away behind her. After that she seemed to lose interest.

I tried again in the afternoon, but she only showed moderate interest. She did move towards the worm purposefully but didn't immediately grab it, and it crawled out of reach behind a plant stem. When it emerged again she was no longer paying attention.

Finally, just before going to bed I decided to check on her again and saw that she was very alert to my movement as I came up. I thought it wouldn't hurt to see if she would eat now, so I again dropped a worm in her cage. The response was immediate. A few quick steps and a pounce, and the worm was no more.

In all it was eight days that she didn't eat -- two before her molt and six after. But she doesn't seem any the worse for it.

 

[eur0pein]

my first mantis (chinese) did thet when she became L5