Video of life on another planet?
No, just baby praying mantises emerging from an egg case (an "ootheca" if you want to be ready for your next social gathering).

My daughter's coworker found the egg case, jarred it, and recorded this on time-lapse. These little lovelies are helpful for pest control in your garden and meadow.

I'm sure your dreams will be fine.

#Gardening #PrayingMantises #Nature #Insects

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Ever since, come September, we have many praying mantises in our yard. Egg sacs appear every fall, hidden around the yard, and the next year we see the mantises again. The pictures are from the last few years; the one of mating mantises is of Rosie and one of her friends.

I read that they probably hatch in June, but we’ve never seen any babies until now.

I’m just surprised to have gone my entire life seeing one or two mantises, and now we see maybe a dozen in our yard every year. We feel privileged; they’re such beautiful and interesting creatures.

We live on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, in a dry prairie region. My question for any #entomologists out there: is something going on? Is this related to the changing climate? Or is it just a result of random migrations?

#insects #bugs #entomology #entomologists #prayingmantises #mantises

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In September 2020, for probably only the second or third time in my entire life, we saw an adult praying mantis in our back yard. For a month or so we watched her hunt, feed, mate with several different males, and grow a bulging abdomen. We called her Rosie.

Finally, she was gone, and later we found an egg sac attached to our wooden fence.

#insects #bugs #entomology #entomologists #prayingmantises #mantises