Two Egg Cases!

The only praying mantis I have seen in several weeks has gone, leaving not one, but two ootheca (egg cases). I’ve been checking on her every day. The leaves on her favourite artichoke plant have died and turned brown, which has made her easy to spot. Yesterday she was hiding among the curled up leaves and I wondered if she was busy. Today I couldn’t find her so I searched for an ootheca and found two. I hadn’t known that a mantis could produce two so close together in time.

The mantis females that I have known have gone away after laying their eggs. Usually they climb up a pole, or anything tall that is at hand, and launch themselves off, fluttering inefficient wings to fly a short distance away. I was intending to take her into the greenhouse to retire, which would have been more pleasant than a bare tree or long grass. As it is I will have to care for her egg cases because the leaves will rot, or drop off. I still don’t know if her eggs have been fertilised.