Mantis molting

[JeffreH]

Don't mean to take the thread in a different direction (feel free to knock us back on track Monza Geckos!) but the midgut is not lined with cuticle and is therefore not molted, rather, it is replaced continually by basal epithelium if my memory serves me right. I think I hear more people using the terms foregut, midgut and hindgut in the field over stomatodeum, mesenteron and...proctodeum? There are enough structures with daunting names in insects, I vote we make the digestive tract nice and simple LOL

Yay for bug geeks!

[Truffs1178]

Don't really know much about the internals of insects yet. I just know the care and breeding. Arn't the fore,hind and midgut all inside the insect. I just said midgut because I thought you had missed it out.

[JeffreH]

No worries Jack -it was a good observation! Plus, it is an odd thing that the midgut lacks cuticle yet the other portions contain it. I think the foregut is shed through the mouth and the hindgut through the anus...

The foregut is basically a food storeage resevoir that contains the "crop" of the insect. It also contains the proventriculus which helps to grind food particles down to be processed by the midgut. The proventriculus is heavily sclerotized like "teeth" to help accomplish this task.
The midgut is the primary digestive area, which is probably why it isn't lined with cuticle (otherwise it may digested?). It contains gastric caeca that basically secrete digestive enzymes and increase surface area for absorption (much like villi/microvilli of our GI tract). The midgut is lined with a thin peritrophic membrane and epithelial cells that are constantly renewed.
The hindgut is rather unexciting - it contains maliphiagian tubules that sort of act like "kidneys" and the large intestine of our body in that they maintain fluid and ion balance.

Internal digestive anatomy in a nutshell = )

[Monza geckos]

Yeah bout the Vaseline trick I ment that if a mantid had a bad molt and it's wing cases were out of alignment it would work the same way as a cast

[Truffs1178]

No I still don't think it would work.