New Mantis, New question.

[Hutton]

So, my smithii died yesterday of old age, she was a little over 3 inches when she died. I noticed that before she died she was skittish, and wouldnt eat. Is this common before a mantis is about to pass away?

Today i was able to find another mantis. It is a male N wennerae. He is missing a uropod and his second walking leg on his left side. Besides these injuries he was perfectly healthy and active. How long should it take for him to grow back his leg and uropod to their full size, he is also about 1.5 inches long and green with dark green.

 

[Pea-brain]

Hi. I think it takes a full grown peacock 1 year to grow back its raptorial appendage. Less time for juveniles. It takes 4 molts overall. I don't know how that translates to N. wennerae, and legs/uropods. Hope I helped. And sorry to hear about your loss...

 

[mattyice]

with how slow growing a full grown peacock is i bet it would take about 2-3 year to go back its raptorial appendage with how small the wennerae is i would bet that it would take up to a year to grow everything back

 

[Hutton]

im not sure it should take that long, its a leg and a uropod the little guy is missing. leg i quess 3 molts, uropod i have no idea.

 

[mattyice]

well im not sure how long it takes for them between molts im guessing off of a peacock mantis that is only about 2-3" in length

 

[Gonodactylus]

I have never seen a stomatopod regenerate an entire uropod. I have seen them regenerate just a uropodal endo or exopod.

The walking leg should grow back in two or three molts. A gonodactylid missing a leg does not accelerate its molt cycle, so with lots of food, expect the leg to regrow in six months.

The loss of a raptorial appendage can cause a stomatpod to shorten its molting cycle a bit. The loss of both will greatly increase molting frequency provided they are given food that they can eat. In one study that we published a few years ago, the loss of both raptorial appendages shortened the intermolt interval by more than 50% in some animals.

Roy

 

[Hutton]

will the missing uropod effect the mantis in a bad way?

 

[Gonodactylus]

I've caught animals in the field that had lost a uropod, so I don't think it will have a strong impact on an animal living the good life in an aquarium. If it were out on the reef trying to defend its home and avoid predators, that would be a different story.

Roy