Surprise Ghost Adult

[PrayingMantisPets]

i cant wait for mine to molt to adult hood 

 

[Ocelotbren]

Another ghost update...my other male molted to adult today!  He almost ran into troubles but luckily he molted during the day and I got home in time to notice.  He didn't leave himself enough vertical space and was fully out of the exuvia but his neck was bent and his head was hitting a leaf below him.  I managed to open the lid he was dangling from (only his abdomen was still touching the exuvia so I was pretty nervous) and turn it so that he had enough vertical space.

After a while of hanging there, his neck straightened out and his forearms went to a normal position.  His wings had started to unfurl at that point so I was a bit worried about how they'd turn out but he made the flip and they seem to have turned out fine.  Phew!  I really wanted at least one of my two males to have normal looking wings, because they do look cool.

All in all, crisis averted.  I'm about to go away for a couple weeks and I have a friend caring for my mantids while away, so I'll be offline for a while but hopefully will get some pictures of him when I get back.  My last sub-adult ghost is a green female so I am really hopeful that her adult molt goes smoothly...and that it happens after I get back so I don't miss it!

 

[Connor]

Congrats on a successful molt! Glad to hear it turned out well. Hopefully your female will molt perfectly!

 

[Ocelotbren]

I sure hope so, because the two males have been stressing me out! :blink:   And thanks!

 

[Ocelotbren]

My green female molted while I was away, almost perfectly.  Her wings are a little messed up but that's it.  The male whose wings look good did end up with a bit of a wrinkle at the very end on the side but you can barely tell.  My ghosts have had bad luck with their wings, not sure if it's just coincidence or something wrong with my setup that could cause it.

Here is a picture of the male that molted right before I left for a couple weeks:

And here are three pictures of the green female that molted while I was away:

Everyone is doing great and I'm glad to be done with molting drama for a little bit!

 

[Connor]

Oh wow! She is amazing... holy . I have a golden sub female and a golden/green sub female. Hopefully the golden/green decides to go that shade of green. That’s crazy! 

Btw just wondering how big were your sub ghosts? I’m wondering if mine really are subs or presubs... if they are presubs they are really slow growing!

 

[agent A]

last i remember female ghosts molt 7 times and males molt 6 or 7

 

[Connor]

last i remember female ghosts molt 7 times and males molt 6 or 7

Yeah that’s what I was thinking... I just haven’t kept track of their molts lol. Wondering if I can tell based on size.

 

[Ocelotbren]

I'm not sure about size, maybe 1.5" or a bit less, although with their abdomens folded back it's hard to really get a good idea of their length anyway.  Here are a few pictures to give you a size reference relative to my hand:

Sub-adult male:

Sub-adult female:

And also, pre-molt male wing buds: