Wild Mantid Mismolt

[MandellaMandy123]

Hi all,

I thought that my praying mantid was stuck in her exoskeleton, but when I took a closer look I saw that she had made it out of her exoskeleton, but her wings came out curly and deformed. She is hobbling around right now, and doesn't seem to be in much pain. She is a wild mantid. Is there anything I can do or is it time for the freezer? She can't climb yet. I'll try to give her time, but I'd like to know if there's anything I can do. Now the question is whether she can eat, or do anything mantid-like. I don't want her to live a miserable existance, and trust me - if my mantids stay in their containers for more than a day at a time, they'll stop eating and start acting neurotic until they can do something exciting. Talk about spoiled....

~Wolfie

 

[PhilinYuma]

kova

Yep, you're the only one who can decide if it is better for her (or you) if you want to keep her alive. The wings have no feeling, and if they are in the way, some folk snip them off with a pair of scissors. Here's a thought for next time, though. When a mantis is about to moult, it takes in extra fluid by mouth,either as water or water vapor (high humidity) which greatly increases its blood/hemolymph volume. It then "puffs itself up" by muscular contraction so that the inner skin expands, stretching the dead outer skin with it and then returns to normal, while the dead skin stays expanded because it is inflexible. The hemolymph is then pushed through the wing veins to make them expand. Isn't that great? I think I'll mark this for the next time someone asks! (Don't tell anyone, Wolfie, but my marker is part of my old friend Superfreak's patronymic! Awww!)

 

[MandellaMandy123]

Thanks so much for responding, PhilinYuma! I'll give her the rest of the day, then perhaps I'll snip her wings. As long as it doesn't cause her any pain I watched some videos of mantids' final molts on Youtube - it's amazing how the fluff up their wings I'll watch how she's doing and let you know

~Wolfie

 

[MandellaMandy123]

I tried snipping her wings, and I did everything I could, but she still died... I don't know what happened...

 

[lancaster1313]

Sometimes unseen things can go wrong during a molt, if that was the only problem. At least you did your best and tried to help.

 

[ShieldMantid1997]

Ive noticed that somtimes random deaths have occured for me out of no where(once). As long as you did everything right there is nothing else you clould have done

 

[PhilinYuma]

Well, I know that you know about spiracles and their function. Sometimes in a bad molt, the spriracles are damaged (the old ones pull part of the new ones away with them) even if you can't see it., so the mantis suffocates. Everyone has their own view on this, but another reason that i kill all mantids that fail to thrive after a bad molt is due to this. You did exactly all you could, so don't berate yourself.

 

[MandellaMandy123]

Thanks for the consolation, everyone. I didn't think of that before, Phil, but you're right - his abdomen looked kind of deformed. Poor thing... I was all for putting him in the freezer, but my mom wanted to give him a chance to live. On the other hand, I wanted to freeze my nymph who was stuck on the tape, since she seemed to be in pain, but she ended up living! So... Poor little guy.