Mantids

I found this under a boulder and I had a nagging feeling that I knew what it was...I just couldn't remember. So I sent the image to my Bugographer friend, Phil Huntley-Franck and he reminded me of what it is: a mantid egg case! Nearly 20 years ago I purchased a case like this and put it in a jar to hatch. A week or two later the jar was BRIMMING with thousands of the most adorable praying mantis babies! I took them out into the garden and released them with hopes to see some of them again if I looked. However, hard as I tried, I never did find a single one of them!

This praying mantis egg case was discovered on a metal loading ramp my husband uses, and since we didn't want the little guys to cook to death from heat transference, we carefully removed it. I then got a large jar, built a comfortable habitat, and have the case sitting inside in royal comfort. Stay tuned for BABY PICTURES! We will then release all of the little praying mantis babies into the meadow!

[best appreciated at full size against black] Ok, ok, I'm lying!! Do you have any idea what these two weird things are?! When I first found one of these, I thought I'd seen one before, years ago. But where? And what could it possibly be? These are Praying Mantis egg cases!! Aren't they strange looking?!! Once, many years ago, I found these egg cases for sale at a local nursery. You put them in a container in a warm, dry place and in a few weeks, they hatch into zillions of adorable, perfectly miniature praying mantises! I released them into our backyard and I looked forward to seeing them around the yard...but I never saw a single one after I released them! BOO HOO!!! (By the way, you too, can buy your own egg cases and hatch hundreds of baby mantids to release in your garden! These are also something very fun to share with your kids to teach them about insect life cycles! www.amazon.com/Egg-Cases-Chinese-Praying-Mantis/dp/B000MR... ) These cases were found on the underside of a log when Steve and I went on a hike near Ashland, Oregon, but I've found them on our property too, under rocks and a branch. I am always on the lookout for these amazing insects, but I've never seen one! They are such camouflage artists! If you would like to know more about these elusive, beneficial predators, here's a great Wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis This image was taken in February, 2012.

At the end of June 2014, I was upstairs in our home and walking in the hallway, when I noticed movement on the ground. Peering down at our beige carpet, I could hardly believe my eyes. "NO WAY!!!" It was an adult praying mantis!! I could barely see it on the carpet because it so perfectly matched the color! Somehow, this praying mantis managed to find its way inside our house and climb up our stairs to the second floor. Who knows how long it had been lost inside, but I figured it was probably very hungry, thirsty and weak. Trotting downstairs to get a jar, it took me a few seconds to find it again when I returned. Amazed, I gently coaxed it inside and brought the jar downstairs, where I stared in awe at the "space alien of the insect world". I ran upstairs to get Steve and after admiring our cool friend, we went outside to let him disappear into the dried grass which it so perfectly matched. Just before releasing him, Steve held him for a photo session, and I managed to get lots of great pictures! What a magnificent insect!!! :) Information about camouflage and the praying mantis: These masters of camouflage don't change colors within minutes like chameleons can. Instead, they change colors every time they molt to match the current environment they're in. They molt approximately every two weeks as they are growing up, but once they are adults, they no longer molt, and they cannot change color after that.