Posts Tagged: ootheca
It's Green Friday
Today is Black Friday, a day that marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It's reportedly the busiest shopping day of the year. But to us, today is Green Friday, in recognition of a female green praying mantis,Stagmomantis limbata.occupying a rib of a tall green cactus in...
A female praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, rests on a cactus in Vacaville. She's the last of the season. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Prey Tell, Where Are All the Mantids?
Prey tell, where are all the praying mantids? Last fall, a Stagmomantis limbata deposited her egg case, or ootheca, on an clothespin on our outdoor clothesline. On April 9, the clothespin sprang to life. Hundreds of nymphs emerged, scrambled away, and vanished. Some...
A beautiful gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, is right at home in the lantana. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Find the praying mantis! In the flood of red and gold lantana blossoms is a gush of green: a beautiful gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A very gravid praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Well, hello there! The praying mantis eyes the photographer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Quail of a Time
Talk about a quail of a time.... When the ootheca of a praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, hatched April 9 on a clothespin clamped to our clothesline in our yard, all the nymphs scattered. Some crawled up a metallic quail sculpture, the highest structure on the clothesline. (See Bug...
Praying mantis nymphs, Stagmomantis limbata, scatter on a metallic quail sculpture near where they hatched the afternoon of April 9 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Near nightfall, only a few nymphs remained on the metallic quail sculpture. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Day a Clothespin Sprang to Life
Saturday, April 9 was the day a clothespin sprang to life. Some 200 praying mantis nymphs emerged from an ootheca that Mama Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata) had deposited last summer in our pollinator garden in Vacaville. We first noticed the...
This is what the ootheca looked like in mid-March. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Saturday, April 9 was "Hatch Day." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Some of the praying mantis nymphs climbed to the top of a metallic quail sculpture on the clothesline, getting a bird's eye view. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Well, howdy there, sibling! What big eyes you have! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Ooh, an Ooth! And on a Clothespin, at That!
No doubt you've seen a praying mantis egg case, or ootheca, on a tree, shrub, fence or post. But have you ever seen one attached to a clothespin on an outdoor clothes line? So here we were Thursday afternoon, hanging freshly laundered dog blankets on the clothes line. We grabbed...
An eggcase or ootheca warming on a clothespin in Vacaville, Calif. This is from a Stagmomantis limbata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This image of a gravid Stagmomantis limbata, taken last summer in a Vacaville pollinator garden, may have been the mama. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The predator and the prey. A female mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, eyes a honey bee in a pollinator garden in Vacaville last summer. She missed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)