Half blind mantis

[Greasylake]

This is my C. Gemmatus eating a cricket I gave her and, as you can see she's blind in her right eye. I've had her since she was L3 and of the pair I had ordered she was always the slowest to catch prey and I noticed she had problems catching the prey I gave her, leading me to believe she had problems with depth perception. Well after a few months of help with feeding and some extra care I can proudly say she's made it to maturity. I don't actually have any questions I just wanted to share this story with you guys.

 

[NickW]

Congrats! Was the eye damaged or is it a deformity?

 

[Greasylake]

I honestly have no idea. I think she was born with it though because even as a little L3 mantis she was having the problems hunting that she does now. As you can see the eye is completely black so I'm not sure if it has a weird cataract or something is wrong with her nerves or something else. I know she's much less graceful than her sister, who hunts prey normally, while the blind one throws her entire body on top of the prey to catch it. Actually now that I'm thinking about it there's a possibility the blind eye could be caused by inbreeding, but I don't know the person who bred them so I can't say for sure either way.

 

[Greasylake]

Update: she just passed away two days ago. I honestly have no idea what happened as the other mantis from her ooth is still perfectly healthy and strong. When I fed them both last week the blind one was very weak and struggled to catch her prey, and when she did she only ate half of it before dropping it. I suppose it may have just been her time as that's the same kind of behavior I saw when my last mantis died of old age.