Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Mantises

Last September, my husband brought me a mantis egg case he found while working in the yard.

September 26, 2012

The ootheca was attached to a dried Nandina heavenly bamboo branch which I placed in a small vase on the kitchen counter for a few weeks...


until I moved the branch to a pot of dirt outside on the patio table where I could see the egg case from the window.  On April 23, about a dozen tiny green mantises were crawling on the branch.

April 23, 2013



Over the next week dozens more mantis nymphs emerged from the egg case.







April 26, 2013

This morning I found just one little mantis on the flower pot.

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19 comments:

  1. betchaiMay 1, 2013 at 12:54 PM

    oh, what a very beautiful and so priceless gift, thanks for sharing this gift to us through your pictures. love your vase too. wish someone will give me this kind of gift too :) and hope I will be as successful as you in bringing out life.

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  2. Annie JeffriesMay 1, 2013 at 1:08 PM

    omigosh. shocked me. very glad the little guys were outside when they decided to emerge. amazing pictures.

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  3. AnonymousMay 1, 2013 at 1:58 PM

    Hello! Very interesting post!

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  4. DeniseinVAMay 1, 2013 at 2:30 PM

    Lucky us and I thank you for sharing these amazing photos. I have never seen anything like these. Never knew what a praying mantis egg sac looked like, though I have always been fascinated by the praying mantis. Wonderful post!

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  5. JanieMay 1, 2013 at 2:33 PM

    Very cool. Mantises are so cute when they're little. We see egg casings every year. I'll have to try keeping an eye on one to see if it hatches.

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  6. angryparsnipMay 1, 2013 at 3:22 PM

    This is such an interesting post. Very brave of you to have the egg case in your home.
    I am always trying to keep out the critters small and big who are always trying to come in my home.

    Wonderful photos.

    cheers, parsnip

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  7. cieldequimperMay 1, 2013 at 10:18 PM

    That's amazing!

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  8. ThérèseMay 1, 2013 at 11:39 PM

    What a fun bunch. I never saw so many little ones together. You must have enjoyed them so much!

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  9. PJ van ZylMay 2, 2013 at 12:29 AM

    awesome share

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  10. StephanieMay 2, 2013 at 3:39 AM

    Oh this is beautiful! Love how you careful you observe the egg hatching and the little babies came crawling out. This is my first time seeing how mantises come out from their egg... and one egg wow!

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  11. DarlaMay 2, 2013 at 9:36 AM

    Can something be exquisite and spectacular at the same time? I think so and this was it! This was indeed a precious gift -- thank you for sharing! I was deep inside the earth this morning, deep in darkness, stillness, heaviness (though not sadness) and these photos lit my face with a smile, my bones became luminescent, and the weighty earth fell away like fluffy loam! :-)))

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  12. LoreeMay 2, 2013 at 1:14 PM

    How amazing to witness something like that. Those baby mantises made me smile.

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  13. BarbMay 2, 2013 at 3:20 PM

    Magical! My grandchildren would be mesmerized! (I love the mantis babies!)

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  14. Betty ManousosMay 3, 2013 at 11:23 AM

    beautiful and very well photographed!

    have a great weekend, dear diane!

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  15. RIZALENIOMay 3, 2013 at 9:22 PM

    Wow! The miracle of life. I enjoyed this entry a lot. First time for me to see something like this documented in photos.

    Happy weekend! :)

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  16. Magia da InêsMay 5, 2013 at 9:38 AM

    ¸.•°✿✿⊱彡

    Olá, passei para uma visitinha.
    Interessante, é a natureza!!!

    Ótima semana!
    Beijinhos.
    Brasil.°✿⊱彡
    ¸.•°✿✿⊱彡

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  17. ZielonaMilaMay 7, 2013 at 5:50 AM

    Beautiful photos, fantastic compositions:) Greetings

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  18. MagpieMay 9, 2013 at 9:02 PM

    This is amazing! I'm feeling lonely for my blogging buddies and there you all are...right where I left you. ;)

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  19. PhioxeeMay 19, 2013 at 10:34 PM

    ive never seen a mantis egg with a lot of mantis coming out.

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