Wild mantid-loaf: imagine another surprise!
A praying mantis egg-case is not something you can easily find if you’re looking for one. So, imagine our surprise — again! — when E looked up at a random, leafy, and low branch of the big backyard mesquite, and said, “Hey,
look!” There was a tiny brown-loaf-looking mantid egg case, stuck to a thin twig towards the whippy tip of a branch.
This was our second mantis-related sighting of the week — the other is described here, in the latest post on this blog.
So, we’ll be keeping an eye on this one, to see if it hatches, now that warmer weather is here. And, who knows how many more are out there? With luck, the yard will be mantis-rich before long.
Praying mantis egg-case on mesquite twig, finger for scale (Photo A.Shock) >>
And stay tuned to read about what I encountered under the mesquite just now, while checking on the mantis-egg case…
[…] were stashed by mom in a shallow scrape right out in the open. When we discovered them, while checking on the mantis egg case, they were barely 3 inches long. A day later, they were gone, leaving only the “form” […]
[…] ones are grayish brown, and this one is full grown at under two inches. These are the guys whose breadloaf-like eggcases we find in the yard (or, once, in the house on a plant we took in for the winter; the hatchling […]