Shedding Problems?

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Gwan-Thwei

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Alright, so this is only me second time here (first time was regarding my other mantid's old age) so apologies if i don't know the proper terminology.

I'm not quite sure what kind of mantid i have (assuming it's a chinese mantis because of the resemblance to my other one?) but he's still pretty young. S/he just shed yesterday, and now they're about two inches long. They now have that weird thorax carapace and some little wingbuds if you squint.

Anyways, i found them this morning almost entirely shed except for one of their back feet. I know that such moults are dangerous but the fact that they had their skin attached to their foot for more than a day worried me. They weren't making any progress either, just climbing around with their leg in the air. Closer inspection revealed that the leg was broken and the foot was still inside. I tried to carefully peel it off (as i had read somewhere) and found that he foot was malformed and had hardly developed at all.

The mantis in question looks alright, they're still wandering around and preening their fresh appendages, although with their leg still in the air. Should i be worried about this loss? Will the leg grow back on their next moult? Should i seal the end somehow? Really, any advice at this point would be helpful.

 
Your mantis will be just fine, you could cut down the part of the leg that is still stuck in the molt. Since it is still growing the next two to three molts the leg will grow back and be back to normal.

 

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