Wiggling abdomen after molt

[hundefrau]

Hey guys

One of my male A. tesselata nymphs molted into adulthood yesterday. Sadly one of his wings got caught up in the old skin and tore mostly off.

I've set him up in a small bin so he can hopefully recover in peace, but I noticed he wiggles his abdomen up and down when I carefully move the oak leaves to check up on him (like a slow wiggle, not erratic shaking).

I am unsure if this might be a bad sign of him taking more damage than just a lost wing during the molt :/ 

Thanks for your help

 

[hundefrau]

Update: When I checked up on him today, he didn't wiggle his butt anymore. He was mobile and active in trying to hide away.

So I guess he was actually trying to get a feeling for his new, bigger body (I mean... I don't know for sure the other males didn't wiggle as well after molting into adulthood, since they all had normally formed wings and all)?

 

[vfox]

He could have been expanding his new, soft exoskeleton by pulsing his abdomen like that. Kinda pressurizing the hemolymph in his body to stretch it out like a rubbery bug balloon. Lol 

 

[hundefrau]

(Sorry for the late reply, I was in the middle of studying for my microbiology exam)

Yeah, I think that's what it was. He's still alive and active (considering he didn't pop out of his skin flawlessly and has crippled wings as well as one misshaped tibia). Though I don't wanna put him in with the other males because they would probably bully him hard and I also want to keep an eye on him eating enough.