We have a late Find entry, which I’m rushing out to make it still within the confines of Friday (I have a half hour.)
After watching the hatching taking place many moons ago, I saw no signs of any Chinese mantids (Tenodera sinensis) at all, except for the adult that suddenly appeared on the liriope, and I suspected that one had come from elsewhere. Tonight I found this mama, obviously ready to drop an egg sac, and I’m going to keep checking on her to see if I can witness this (and by that, I mean photograph, natch.)
I have to note that this is full-frame, and hardly the limits of closeup ability for this lens (the Canon 18-135mm STM.) We need scale, however, and I gotcha.
Yes, she’s a right thick one, and it’s impressive seeing how much they can grow in a season, since she’s a measured 100mm in length (I went back out to check,) while the newborns might top 12mm. She spooked while i was doing this, and I had to convince her to get back into the open, since the foliage there was dense enough for her to disappear easily, and then I’d never see the egg sac being deposited.
During the same session, I also found this one.
This is the other common species around here, a Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina,) not exactly providing the natural background by perching on the rain barrel. Less than half the length of the Chinese, this is nevertheless an adult, though not obviously pregnant. Another view:
The urban camouflage is strictly within this species, which can also be green. The short wings denotes this as a female.
Now, I tried to coax this one into my hand for scale pics, but she was having none of that, perhaps aware that I’d been messing with the septic system earlier today (even though I did thoroughly wash my hands.) She quickly leapt away, at least making a more natural background by landing in the grass, and after assuring herself that she’d escaped, she wasted absolutely no time in ridding her feet of that icky human ichor.
You’d think that perhaps it might be healthier to use something other than her mouth, especially with the rain barrel right there, but what can I say?
Five minutes til midnight – gotta hit ‘Post’…