Entomophagous fungus?

[mantisfan101]

I found one of my wc carolina mantises weak and dangling by her legs. A couple days ago there was a weird black thing orotruding out of her abdomen but she’d retract it whenever approaches. Now, it’s staying out but it also appears that there is some white mold growing on it. What is this? I’m honestly really freaked out right now, if it is some sort of entomophagic fungus I don’t want it to spread to the rest of my collection

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Probably an enlarged piece of feces. I would need a better picture to tell for sure. Most likely constipated - badly.

 

[paumotu]

Probably an enlarged piece of feces. I would need a better picture to tell for sure. Most likely constipated - badly.

Perhaps you could use some tweezers to carefully try to remove it if it’s loose.

 

[schmiggle]

I don't know what it is, but it's not a classic entomopathogen as far as I can tell. By the time you can externally see an entomopathogenic fungus like Cordyceps, the insect will be dead and not moving. The fungal hyphae emerge from every gap in the chitin, along with large numbers of fruiting bodies. It's quite dramatic.