Praying mantis saga continues

A few weeks ago I posted a thread about the visitors at my bug light, which I later dubbed "The Midnight cafe".(http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/456836/)

Halfway through the thread I remarked that the female mantis was getting really fat. I suspected that she could be pregnant, but also thought she might just be fat, from gorging herself on all that free food(the Midnight cafe's all you can eat buffet)...lol...

Last night around dusk, I reached for a broom, off the tool rack we have on our porch, and saw her on my little hand rake. She was in the process of laying her eggs! Over the next hour I watched and photographed her progress.

This one was with a flash. It was beginning to get dark, but the flash kinda washed her out a bit...
-seedpicker_TX

As I waited for her to continue, I noticed two moths on the brick, just a shovel and rake away...
-seedpicker_TX

This is a close-up of the large moth
-seedpicker_TX

This is a close-up of her releasing the goo. It was just fascinating watching her do this. She worked her abdomen in waves which made the egg goo come out. Then she used parts of the tip of her abdomen to spread them and make a complex pattern...
-seedpicker_TX

This message was edited Sep 30, 2004 9:17 PM

This is her 3/4 of the way done...
-seedpicker_TX

It was half an hour later, and now dark. The ghekos started coming out. This was a cute baby gheko up in the corner near some sort of hornet nest, or something...
-seedpicker_TX

This is the final product of an estimated two hours worth of work...
-seedpicker_TX

She stayed with her egg sak for a while(probably just to rest up), but by this morning, she was already back at "The Midnight Cafe", to fill that belly back up!
All that work must have made her hungry! lol...Now, that was a quick recovery! lol...
-seedpicker_TX

Amazing, absolutely amazing. I totally enjoyed looking at every photo. So much for using that hand rake for a while! Gosh, I can't wait until you get babies!

Wow! What a cool thing to witness! Thanks for sharing!

seedpicker, neat pictures. I have seen a couple of egg cases this summer, but haven't seen any adults. Donna

According to a site that Floridian sent me, the egg case should hatch in about two weeks, if the temperatures stay around 75 degrees. That is about what is in the forecast, so may have babies, soon.

I need to use that rake! lol...

The site said that when they come out, they are about the size of mosquitos. It also said she would lay several more!

I had a very large moth cocoon I was watching several weeks ago. A website said it would hatch in the Spring, so didn't really watch it too closely. It hatched within two weeks, and I MISSED IT! ARGH!

I sure don't want to miss this one! Maybe the same conditions apply here. The site said two weeks at 75 degrees. Maybe in Northern places that moth cocoon would have needed to wait for Spring for those temperatures, but this is Texas, afterall! I should have taken that into consideration, but, hey...I'm still learning about these things...

-seedpicker_TX

That is a gorgeous moth! Thanks for sharing his pic :-)

-Julie

Dduuble -Wowsers!! ..
What a fascinating peice of nature 'reporting' Taylor !! And how even more spectacular is it, that she obliged you so wonderfully .. by opting to put her nest cache right there where you could easily find it!! She's one smart mantis, 'ey! ..

And surely, you do KNOW that the rake is now totally 'off limits' .. and has to remain just so .. until dem bambinney manties hatch!! Ya jes gonna hafta go fetch yaseff a brand spankin' new'un to tide you over .. till their birth day!! .. hee hee ..

Please do .. continue to monitor and document the mantises egg 'pod' .. Will be watchin' this thread from here on out now ...

Now the moth pics ... are fantastic also. I'm not being crude, rude or ugly here .. but, with the pattern on the moths wings, etc. - to me, it looks like the body is 'inlaid' with another smaller moth !!.Oh dear me ..please, don't anyone try to make anything even remotely vulgar (even for nature), out of that comment!! Also, altho' I'm not into sci-fi much - it sure seems I keep spy-ballin' aliens everywhere! hee Didja see the 'alien head' on the back of your moth .. on the 'body' part .. sorta right behind its head ? .. lol ...

A beautiful moth .. and some mitey nice pics!! Keep 'em comin' T ..

- Magpye

Thanks! Maggie Pie! lol...
I'll keep you all posted...that is if I can catch the little guys hatching...just pray I don't miss it, or they don't hatch at night while I'm asleep!
-seedpicker_TX

We wait. I saw two moths too Mags.

Ahhh, imway .. you jes sayin'at' .. to try to make me feel so .. 'not' alone! LOL Thanks tho' ... figgered I jes caint be by mahseff on that one! .. hee hee
Keep tabs on them babies .. good now, T !!
- Mags

Great pics! I got a couple pics of a female laying her eggs the other day, but she was a little high up in a leland cypress tree and I couldn't get very good close ups. I've been "watching" and "documenting" them for about 4 years.

They usually take about 2-6 weeks to hatch with weather above 70*. Any egg cases that are laid on plants that will go dormant I collect and protect in the refrigerator for the winter. Then in spring will put them back out. If they are laid on "woody" plants or such, then they stay out. Have never had one hatch in the fall, but did have a few hatch in the greenhouse last winter that were laid on some of my tropical plants.

Here's a pic of a case hatching last year. I've got lots of pics of them from that last couple of years. So far I have only found 2 different species in the yard. There are some incredible looking species... do a google search and look at some of the pics. Some look so unreal!

Can't wait for your pics of the hatching babies! :)

edited to add: last year was a very cool wet spring, they didn't hatch until June. This year they all hatched in mid May.

This message was edited Oct 4, 2004 7:10 AM

Excellent! I too will watch this thread with interest to see the success rate of the babies. A couple of springs ago, one of my students brought in an egg case and I thought it had already hatched out. Lo and behold, we entered the classroom one morning to find it over-run with the little buggers. We carefully collected as many as we could and put them in our nature tank with our Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. It's basically a huge compost tank so there were many little morsels of mites and such to feed the babies. But every time we turned around, someone would find another one in the spirals of their notebook, in their neighbor's hair, etc... The kids thought it was all a very exciting diversion.

Eeegads!! ... tons of 'em bay-bays!! Thanks for sharing the 'pic jody.

I'll bet seedpicker will be thrilled, when she gets around to taking a read of her thread ... about your experiences and input ..

I was tryin' to get in real close with my digital .. to a mantis yesterday .. and lo' and behold .. he made a jump onto ME !!
(Care to take a wild guess at who came unglued, and liked to have dropped their camera?!?) .. Hah .. And I even had my
lil sign too .. that says, 'do not jump on me!' !! .. He obviously can't read, or was just a malicious mantis anyway!
.. hee hee hee ..

Yeppers, twill not be I .. attempting the close ups with the living walking 'sticks' .. no more!! lol

- mags

Thanks for sharing your foto, jody.

That rake is portable, but too big to put in a jar... I've thought about pulling it into the greenhouse, if they don't hatch in the next few weeks, but don't want them killing all my newly purchased lady bugs...

Jody-Thanks for posting your picture! That is really neat to see. I hope mine don't hatch and then go directly to the bug light, like their mother! lol...

Magpye-yes, I do enjoy reading everyone's input. It is fun to have this sort of thing going on in your garden, but just as much fun to share with other people, who enjoy it, too.

Earthwormlover-aren't those madagascar hissing cockroaches the disgustingly large squirting things that people frequently have to eat on "Fear Factor"?...ugh Happened to see it while hubby was flipping channels...that was so gross...
-seedpicker_TX

Yes...but like all of our pets, we learn to love them. Once you have seen them rotate their head to look at you, go to a water droplet on the inside of the tank and slurp it up, munch up and down a piece of lettuce with obvious enjoyment, etc...You can love them too.

Alrighty T ... it's 5 days later (since your last post) ...

Wanted to check-in with ya .. to see how them mantid bambinneys are a doin' in their egg case ?

Hee Hee ... You haven't dared touch that rake have you ? ... LOL .. LOL ...

- Mags

Hey Maggie-pie...
Their "due date" isn't until around the 14th, or so, at the very earliest. It could take up to a month longer. I have been checking them everyday.

I DID have to use my rake, but only in a few spots, and I was very careful! lol...fortunately, the egg case us far enough up the tines that I could still get a few leaves out of tight spots without injuring the egg case.

The female has changed her spot to a nearby window(after sitting on the broom for a week:(http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/461025/ ) and a male mantis has taken her spot at the "midnight cafe". http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/456836/

I wonder if that is her mate, or if she'll challenge him when she wants her spot back?

According to the mantis site that Floridian sent me (http://www.bmi.net/roseguy/gbmantis.html), she will lay a few more egg cases. She hasn't, yet, but that is why I am keeping up with where she is everday...I want to spot the new places she lays the new egg cases...
She was thinner after laying the last egg case, and she sure is starting to get another pooch! lol...

-seedpicker_TX

Bless ya heart T .. Don't tell me that you took me dead-serious!?!
.. about YOU using your rake!?! .. hee hee ..

Yep, I too .. took a quick gander at the website that Floridian posted for you ... quite an interesting read!

(chuckle chuckle) .. I jes wanted to try to 'subliminally' impress upon ya - - NOT to !! ... hee hee ..

A body's gotta do what they have to ... Take care!

- mags

seedpicker_TX, I only just caught up with your thread and was thrilled to see the sequence of the egg-laying mantis.
How are your tomatoes?
The moth that you photographed between mantis shots is the Five-spotted hawkmoth Manduca quinquemaculata, also known as the Tomato Hornworm and its caterpillars feed voraciously on tomato plants!
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/moths/usa/1079.htm
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=876790

Lol...Yes, I know...they helped me identify him here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/456829/

My tomatoes did great! ...Actually, he was eating a brugmansia! I don't mind. I have lots of night blooming things, and welcome the nocturnal pollinator. I have plenty of brugmansia foliage...he can eat all he wants! lol...

Thanks for the ID, though as I did not know what he turned into, only what he was as a caterpillar.
-seedpicker_TX

Wow!!!! You've got me combing my hands through my hair now, I hope if I find one, it'll be a male ... fed up having my female partner biting my head off :-D


Shivermoor

Seedpicker, thanks for posting the "due date" so I can keep a better look-out for news from your mantis thread. I check here every day on pins and needles wondering what kind of magical photo you're going to post next :-) I'll try to be patient for a few more days LOL

-Julie

I am afraid I'll go out to check on them, and find that they'd already hatched and I'm too late...
I hope I catch the little boogers hatching! I'd really like to "share their birth" with you all...

-seedpicker_TX

Even if you don't catch the actual moment they emerge from the egg case, you'll surely catch many many little itty bitty rascals climbing on and around your plants in the next few weeks :-). I know I MUST have had several egg cases in the garden over the summer but never actually saw them. The reason I'm so certain they were there is that I saw itsy bitsy preying mantis here and there all summer long. They (and the adults) seemed to make the Bidens their home, but they liked to dine out on just about anything in the garden. Unfortunately the place where I had the Bidens was no longer in full sun as it was when we first started our garden. So it was growing well up onto the patio in search of sun (like a full meter onto the patio!) and was dying back in the portion actually in the beds! So I had to remove it. I'll probably plant it up in the kids very sunny garden area next spring, so I'm sure the Mantis Family will be pleased :-). For now though they seem to still be making do with the rest of the plants playing buffet for them LOL

-Julie

Whole thread,out of this world!
Jody,Wallpaper!

Ditto on the awesome thread........! I laughed at thinking about mantis' on your head! 5 years ago I bought a plant with a mantis egg case on it. They have been multiplying around here ever since...my daughter (8) and the neighbor kids give them "rides" on their heads! They run all around! The mantis' just hang on for dear life! The kids and I have a deal....they can play with them if they don't hurt them and put them back on the same bush later. The kids catch bugs for them, I think they're becoming domesticated!

Insects with personality. They are so cool!

Jody, what happened when that one poor little baby that was hanging onto the eggcase by one leg lost his grip? lol

LOL ebangie!!! Actually, they move pretty quick, as soon as they "dry" and their skin hardens. They also immediately start eating eachother too. The first time I witnessed it, I started moving them all around the yard away from eachother, LOL. But we always have at least 50+ egg cases in the yard, so there aren't many places to move them too that there aren't others. So it's survival of the fitest now ;)

Last week I found a couple mating. The male was headless (eewww) LOL. I took a couple of pics but the way their positions are and with one head missing, it's hard to figure out what you are looking at.

seedp: are you going to move the case if it doesn't hatch soon? Last year I had 2 egg cases that made their way into my greenhouse on my tropical plants. I just left them and in mid Jan I had a whole bunch of mantis running around the greenhouse.

eeew is right!

Jody....cool! I bet you don't have a single aphid in your garden or your greenhouse with all those lovely mantis babies! :-)

Yesterday I annoyed a little mantis by taking about 100 pics of him (of course most got deleted once I was done LOL). Here's one of the cute ones :-)

-Julie