#ootheca

Giant Mantis Ootheca

Belonging to the Giant Rainforest Mantis, if you can believe it.

Hierodula majuscula

28 september (r) vs. 31 march (l)

and unless it experienced some trauma, i figured a bunch of baby mantises had hatched in mid-feb to mid-march when we had a warm spell and i was also so run-off-my-feet busy that i didn't have time to look in on it

but i thought some of them might still be developing so i decided to leave it in place until summer

and then this morning! some action!!

so i helped out that dangling bungee jumper there...

it was perfectly happy to climb onto my fingers -- and to climb back on a couple times after i dropped it, whoops -- and get free of the sticky thread stuff. its back legs were still stuck together when i left it on the pomegranate tree next to an aphid snack but hopefully it will free itself and learn to eat

no clue how many have already hatched, no clue how many are yet to hatch, but there was one other tangled in the sticky debris next to the ootheca that was dead. if there are more siblings i hope they will feast on its corpse.

today?

Found 9 praying mantis egg sacs today while pulling some dead weeds. This is apparently called the “ootheca” each one of these can contain a few dozen to 400 praying mantis eggs! So excited to see biodiversity like monarchs and praying mantis thriving in our natural gardens :)

Kiwi laying her second egg sack