Yellowey bage (sorry for spelling) on mantis?

[Mantidkid]

Ok so my rhombodera basalis has this kind of yellowey bage (sorry for the spelling) running along the side of her body, just above the side of the abdomen and it's extremely thin and just above the abdomen on the side of her wing bud things (she's l5) I'm a worrier so it's probably nothing but still I would like to know please!

 

[Mantidkid]

 

[hymenopus]

I don't know but she is hanging and could be preparing for a molt

 

[Mantidkid]

I don't know but she is hanging and could be preparing for a molt

I don't know as she is sideways on on the side of the enclosure plus she only molted 10 days ago edit: although I fed her nothing today and one small cricket yesterday which isn't that much for an l5 female yet she looks like she's going to explode she's so obese! I don't know why

 

[Ranitomeya]

Juvenile mantises do not get obese. They eat until they can eat no more and then prepare to molt. If you are referring to what I think you're referring to, what you're seeing is the flexible and stretchy part of the exoskeleton between the hardened, sclerotized plates that becomes visible as the abdomen becomes distended due to gut load and an increase in body mass. Think of juvenile mantises as balloons with hardened plates glued onto them. As they eat and grow, the hardened plates do not grow with them, so the stretchy part increases in surface area relative to the hardened surfaces. When they can no longer expand, they molt and increase their size.

 

[Mantidkid]

Juvenile mantises do not get obese. They eat until they can eat no more and then prepare to molt. If you are referring to what I think you're referring to, what you're seeing is the flexible and stretchy part of the exoskeleton between the hardened, sclerotized plates that becomes visible as the abdomen becomes distended due to gut load and an increase in body mass. Think of juvenile mantises as balloons with hardened plates glued onto them. As they eat and grow, the hardened plates do not grow with them, so the stretchy part increases in surface area relative to the hardened surfaces. When they can no longer expand, they molt and increase their size.

Yeah that's what I mean, the underside of her abdomen seems stretched to the limit even though her last molt was only 11 days ago now

 

[hymenopus]

11 days could be a pre-molt (that has happened to me) , I have never had Rhombodera before though.

 

[Mantidkid]

11 days could be a pre-molt (that has happened to me) , I have never had Rhombodera before though.

The thing is tomorrow we are going away and I have to take her on a 2 hour drive so I'm just hoping she molts when we get there not before!