Mother To Be?

This is the only praying mantis I can find in my garden. She has been living on the artichokes for 3 or 4 months, steadily growing, so that she is just about ready to build her ootheca (egg case) and lay her eggs. But it’s a long time since I saw a male and wonder if her eggs will be fertilised.

Here she is resting, legs splayed and with antennae flat down her front. Her distended abdomen contains the materials for making her ootheca.