Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:08 pm Post subject: Parasphendales agrionina
AHHHHHHH
I was kinda scared this morning as i found it on the floor of its enclosure, she was facing down on the dirt. I had checked on her one or two hours before and she was close to the ground but was still hanging on the branches.
My house gets extremely cold at night and i'm worried it might be too cold for her.
I have a large heater nearby and that usually keeps the temperature around 70ish.
Anyhow, i picked her up and she was lethargic. This is what had happened right before my Stagmomantis kicked the bucket.
I placed her close to the heater (on my hand) and little by little she started to move again, I teased her with my finger and finally she gave me an aggressive posture.
I changed her onto a different enclosure with ticker branches and no substrate and placed her near the window where the sun shines in.
An hour later i looked for her and noticed the was "hugging" one of the thick branches very close, I've actually never have noticed this behavior before. She was laying so close to the branch that her abdomen was flat against it and so was her mouth.
I used my finger once again and just as I touched her abdomen she rapidly turned back and went for my finger. (that was really fast)
She gave me one of those "don;t mess with me" looks and stance and then she eventually went back to laying close to the branch.
Could she be molting?
I'm worried i'll go back and find her dead.
Any help or suggestions?
I usually mist her enclosure once a week to keep the humidity going, she is on a cricket and fruit fly diet, almost every other day she'll take a 1/4" cricket and approx 5 flies.
I had potting soil at the bottom of the cage, and lots of branches in there.
Now she has no substrate and only a couple of thick branches.
I hope she will be fine. _________________ God does not play at dice AE
Dude, it sounds like you need a cheap little under-tank heating pad. I buy the seedling heat mats from OSH for $25... _________________ "Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)
Hello,
More than a heating pad, a heat lamp will work best. She might have been to cold. Usually when they get ready to molt they do it up high in a branch or something.
They position themselves for a day and stop eating a day before, you should see their abdomen really fat and the budwings raise up.
Those are usally the indicators of an upcoming molt.
good luck.
PS I have a male getting close to adulthood. _________________
BTW, she is fine now, i put a small cricket in yesterday and she just gobbled that little sucker up!!
Her abdomen is normal in size (from what I can tell), but i have been noticing that the back of her cephalothorax has some lines that resemble the are where the wings would end.
She has been hanging on a branch, and last night she went all the way to the top and hung on the lid of the container, but this morning she was back on the branch and had not molted.
Let's keep our finger crossed, and I would be delighted to go 50/50 on those babies Francisco! _________________ God does not play at dice AE
AAAWWWWWWW!!!! I *LOVE* mantises! (Feeding the babies was always just way too much work). How *adorable*! _________________ "Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)
She's a beauty alright! Mantises have so much *personality*! _________________ "Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)
Really sad to inform she has passed away as well. It really might have been a bad molt, she was found lifeless underneath her exuvia. I'm just sad 'cause she was my first invert.. had her since she was little tike. This was the molt where she gained her wings, beautiful at that. I tried moving her with a brush but she was non-responsive. I have not moved her after that... couldn't bring myself to do it (plus I'm always running around).
Ah, this mantis was so much fun... what a hunter too.
Ok, so tis may be Off topic but I will be looking for a P. agrionina if anyone has another one. Female please.
Well, just wanted to let ya'll know what happened. _________________ God does not play at dice AE
Sorry to hear that..... _________________ “Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself.”
Oh, man.... I'm so sorry to hear that, Oscar. I had a pretty high mortality rate on some of my exotic mantises last year, too... It seemed like getting the humidity just right was really tough: too high, and they got fungal infections and died; and too low and they couldn't molt properly and died... :-(
I know what a bummer it is when they die, too -- you get so attached to them! You have my condolences... _________________ "Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)
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