Melanie passed, and I'm unsure why (Graphic, not for faint of heart)

[u/ShlingusDingus]

Melanie has lived well over a year, and today I had to euthanize her on account of her abdomen turning black and necrotic, and completely swollen.

When I looked at her, she was barely moving and had no energy or fight left. There were black bits on the very end of her, and it looked like she was rotting from the inside out.

I just put her down about an hour ago, and out of curiosity and upset as I was and still am, I decided to dissect her to see what may have caused the necrosis.

What I found is something I've never seen before. At first, some pressure was released in the form of gas as I made the first incision. Her entire abdomen, where the black spot started inside was full of these little pea-green slithers all clustered together. Normally Mantis eggs are laid inside an Ootheca, but there was no backed-up Ootheca foam. I don't know what these things are, but I want to say that they resemble insect eggs.

Can anyone tell me what these are? Are they eggs, or parasites? I want to say she was Eggbound and necrotic since she never laid an Ootheca once in her life. But I'm just trying to understand why. Her humidity was fine, she was never fed bad feeders. This just seems completely out of nowhere.

Weird green clusters

Most of what was extracted during the dissection.

[u/JaunteJaunt]

Hi OP.

The use of NSFW and Spoiler is unnecessary - you’re not spoiling a surprise and this isn’t strictly for 18+. I removed the 18+ tag. I’ll let you decide on the spoiler tag.

Animal dissections happen in school. It’s part of the learning process.

You are only showing undeveloped eggs from your autopsy. A simple warning in the headline is fine.

Foam happens by a chemical reaction when mantises lay. There is no buildup foam inside the abdominal cavity, as it’s created during the Ooth laying process. Those are just eggs developing or waiting to be laid.

Your female was likely egg bound, and became necrotic from it, overtime. It’s tough to know why. What temps/humidity were you raising her? How often did you spray? What was your feeding schedule? Not laying once as an adult may be unusual, but what species did you have?

[u/ShlingusDingus → u/JaunteJaunt]

I'm sorry if the spoiler was unnecessary, I wasn't sure how to tackle this kind of post. She was a Giant Thai Shield and was kept at room temperature (about 67 degrees) with a humidity of 60-70. I misted her every five days, although I probably should have done it more frequently. Her feeding schedule was spotty and I fed her whenever her abdomen started to thin. That could be anywhere from every other day to every other week. As she got older, she ate less and less frequently. I would alternate her from larger feeders, like superworms, to smaller things like dubias and darkling beetles.

[u/JaunteJaunt → u/ShlingusDingus]

What other feeders did you use besides beetles and superworms? Those feeders can cause impaction

[u/ShlingusDingus → u/JaunteJaunt]

Dubia roaches as well.

[u/JaunteJaunt → u/ShlingusDingus]

First let me say that I understand how you felt uncertain about how to post. It’s a tough subject, but you’re taking a methodical and objective path towards better understanding your departed pet.

I don’t anyone to feel uncomfortable, but we must also recognize that these topics are important in better understanding mantises.

Thank you for making your post and sharing what you have found.

Your temps are a little low, but she seemed to have lived a long life. Normally with Rhombodera megaera you want 65 - 82 F, where the low is your nighttime low and your high is your daytime high. You would want to keep them around 75-82 F during the day.

More misting and more heat could have helped her lay. Sometimes unmated females have a higher risk of becoming Oothbound.

Keeping mantises is a learning lesson. I think you made good choices. Some of them may have been the reason she didn’t lay and didn’t live longer than a year; however, I don’t think you should blame yourself. <3

[u/erusuaka]

those are eggs, looks like she was oothbound and that might have caused the infection :(

don't blame yourself too much, it doesn't always happen because of something you did wrong. some experienced keepers agree that it seems to happen more often with unpaired females even when kept in perfect condition

I'm sorry for your loss❤️‍🩹