I have been checking the praying mantis ootheca every day, hoping to catch the little ones in the act of hatching. I missed the actual event, but saw them very soon after it had happened. The wine barrel of herbs was just swimming with mantii*! They are ridiculously small, and numerous... I predict that soon they will become hard to find, as they begin to eat each other for sustenance and spread throughout the garden. As someone who likes odd pets, I find them to be terribly adorable, as they try out their spindly new legs.
Little mantisling wanders across the oregano.
A baby mantis takes a moment in the thyme
Yes, this mantis is perching on a rosemary leaf. It is TINY! I never would have noticed the copper line across their eyes if it weren't for my camera's zoom.
I am so thrilled to have witnessed the mantises' birthday, and hope that they will be happy here in the garden, gorging their little tummies on a variety of insect pests.
*Mantii and mantisling are not real words
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