Gone

That's it. I haven't seen Madam for two weeks now, although I searched the plant extensively at day and night.
Here in Northern Alabama, autumn has set in. It is still 97 F during the daytime, but at night the temperatures go back to chilly low-70s. That might be already too frosty for our Miss Carolina, who always seemed to thrive the more hot and humid it was.
That, of course, torpedoes my brilliant plan to document her life from nymph to Ootheca - it leaves out the mating part and the egg laying part.
I just wonder what exactly became of her. Has she succumbed to the temperatures, has a bird or bigger insect eaten her, or has she just left the plant, which is in a very sorry state right now, for better and greener pastures?
There are several big, ugly catterpillars in the plant, that totally destroy the leafs, there are two locusts, the damn spider mites are also still there - in short, every conceivable pest thrives in our plant, only Madam is gone. For good? I refuse to write her off completely yet, but I think if we don't spot her in the next few days, we will take the plant and put it at a spot in the backyard and let nature have her way.
We already have a healthy new plant in the front-yard, that we will then put at the spot of the old plant, with the faint hope that next year we may be lucky and have a new Madam. Who knows what could happen ...

One word about the plant: it is a very resilient creature, not giving up the fight easily. During the last week, several new blooms have appeared - that is its strategy to combat all those pests that are destroying the leafs. The plant just tries to grow more leafs faster than can be eaten by the various bugs, caterpillars, and spider mites - a picture of those damn critters is shown above.
Eventually, it will lose this battle - too many front-lines at once ...

Back

I am relieved. Madam is still there.
This afternoon, I checked the plant very thoroughly, but all I saw was the disgusting locust.
No trace of Madam. But when I checked the plant after the kids were in bed, as I do regularly every evening, if I am not on a business trip, she was there. As if she had waited for me - when I shined the light on her, she even rocked back and forth. As I said - as if she had waited for me.
That made my day.

As for her general condition - she is the same size as two weeks ago, and everything else seems to be the same as well. That leads me to the conclusion that she is all grown up now. Based on her expected lifespan, that fits into the pattern. I expect her to mate soon, probably in middle to late September. She will probably not survive into November, when the weather usually gets cold for the first time in winter here. But until then, we still have a couple of months - which could be interesting, if I would be able to take pictures of the mating. We'll see ...

Carolina

Finally, I am back from my two week long business trip to Florida. And although I really kept my eyes open and looked virtually in every green spot there, I did not see one praying mantis.
And what's worse is that when I looked for Madam today, there was no trace of her. Moreover, the plant looks really, really sick and basically the whole middle part is dead now. And that is where Madam was making her home before. The left and right outriggers of the plant are still somewhat healthy, and it looks like if they would actually grow again. I spotted a couple of blooms, the branches have grown longer and the leaves, although not looking really healthy, seem to be resilient enough to survive the combined attacks of the various spider mites, fungi, and locust.
Well, at least the family of Carolina wrens that nest at the base of the plant are thriving. The eggs have hatched this week and now Mom and Dad are extremely busy to feed four additional mouths.
What is really amazing, is that our kids play there every day. We set up two small water pools directly in front of the plant, but the birds do not seem to mind the loud noises, splashing water and wild gestures around them.
And since Madam is a Carolina Mantis, and the birds are Carolina Wrens, we now kind of feel having an outpost of this fine southern state in our backyard ...

Relocated

There she is again! My gut feeling of her relocating to a better part of the plant was correct - tonight, I found her on the part of the plant that crawls up the wall of our house.
She was quite active, reacting to the light that came from my video lamp, climbing from leaf to leaf (see photo), and she also seemed unharmed and unfazed by the whole hoopla around the spider mite attack, the chemical counterattack, the storm this week and all that.
I am just happy that she is still there. But for the next two weeks, I will not see her at all, because I will be on a very long business trip to Florida. Maybe I run into one or two of her relatives there ...

Nervous

We haven't seen Madam for the last five days - that makes me a bit nervous.
Has she decided to leave the plant - which is in a really bad shape after the attack of the spider mites.
Her usual hideout, in the middle of the plant, is not a very nice habitat anymore. Lots and lots of brown, dead leafs, the once over-boarding vegetation caved in to a sorry lump of mostly brownish, dying biomass. But one hope remains - that Madam has relocated to the outlying parts of the plants, especially that part which is crawling up on the wall of our house. There, the vegetation has already recovered quite nicely and although not as luscious and thick as it was in the middle of the plant, a Mantis should find some good spots there to rest and hide and hunt.
We even decided to try generating an extension to her habitat, and planted some new plants that we plan to put beside the original plant. At the growth rate we have here in the south, those should be ready for colonization in by the end of the month.
We'll see ...

 

Saturday

Just a normal, boring Saturday night in the plant - Madam hangs out in the underbrush, while the ugly locust slowly crawls and nawls all night long.

Answers

I got some scientific help yesterday, from one of the authors of the book "The Praying Mantids".
Professor Larry Hurd is the Herwick Professor of Biology at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.
Although the book is just overflowing with knowledge and information, it is mainly geared towards fellow scientists a,d biologists, and so some facts that might be interesting for the amateur Mantid enthusiast are not in there.
So I sent him an email with a few questions that puzzled me, and he answered them - I very much appreciate that he took the time to deal with this request by a stranger, asking those things that must seem fairly mundane and simple to him. He really helped us to come clean with some things - here is an excerpt from his mail:

I think the species of mantid you have in your yard is Stagmomantis carolina.  The picture on your interesting blog shows that the wings do not cover the entire abdomen, and there seem to be a pair of pigmented spots about halfway down them.  The specimen is indeed a female: males are much more slender and have long wings.  Although females cannot fly, males are very adept at it and can be difficult to catch.  Individuals can indeed change color between instars, mainly depending on the amount of ultraviolet light they are exposed to.  They do not seem to know what color they are, so many people spot them when they move from a matching  background to its opposite.  Birds can find them at that time, as well.

It would be surprising if Tenodera sinensis were to be found in Alabama, since I have never found them that far south, but S. carolina should be fairly common in your area.  They hatch much later in the spring than either species of Tenodera, and the hatching can extend over several weeks.  It is also possible that there are several generations present at the same time, since your southern winters might not kill the adults, so the population could become asynchronous.  I have seen that in Florida, where all stages of the same species are often found at the same time.

There are about 20-25 species of mantids in the U.S., and there may be several species in Alabama, so I cannot comment on the other individuals you saw in your garden.  

So, to have actually three Mantids in different stages of development on the same plant is not an accident, but can be explained with the extended hatching over several weeks. I do not believe that we have several generations here, because the last winter was the coldest, most brutal one in recent history, and did not at all adhere to the normal scheme of "wearing your Hawaii shirt on Christmas while sipping on a cool drink in the warm breeze on your porch" we usually experience. Here in Northern Alabama, we occasionally have low temperatures in winter, but not for several weeks, and not as cold as it was in January/February this year. These conditions have killed every Mantis for sure.
The eggs, on the other hand, can survive temperatures of minus 40 degrees or so, and it was not as cold as that.

Then there is the thing with the ultraviolet light - I had no idea that this had an influence on the Mantids teint.
Well, madam also started out as a brownish-gray nymph, and over time developed the pale green shade she wears now. When we first detected her, the plant was still small and leaf coverage was patchy. So Madam got a lot of sun, partly also because she spent the first few weeks of her life mainly on the upper side of the leafs, whereas now we mostly find her on the underside.
Mini-Me, on the other hand, started out with about the same color as Madam, but because by then the plant had grown in to this big jungle-like creature, he did not get as much sun as Madam, and thus stayed in that brownish-gray color.

And now, we know for sure that Madam's family name is Carolina - she indeed has those two dark spots on her wings that identify her as Stagmomantis carolina. Also, our assumption that she is a female seems to be correct, because compared to Mini-Me, she is much broader in the hip region, so to speak.

Well, again, many thanks to Professor Hurd for this - and if you ever have a question about rocket science, I would be honored to return the favor. :)

Strike

Last night, the ugly locust was there again, feeding on the plant right at the spot that Madam customarily occupies. But this time, Madam was there, too. Over the span of about half an hour, she watched the locust, sitting there right next to him.

The picture clearly conveys the difference in size between the locust and Madam. My estimation is, that the locust has about five to six times the body mass, although the length is approximately the same.
And Madam slowly opened her predatory fore legs, rocked back and forth a few times, and then the strike happened. For a split second, she had the locust in her grasp, but then gravity took its toll and she could not hold on anymore. I watched her on a daily basis (if she decided to show herself) for almost three months now, so I know her behavior a little bit. And so I knew, that she would strike eventually, and had the camera rolling all the time. Out of the fifteen minutes or so of footage, I extracted the five seconds that show the strike.

According to the book "The Praying Mantids" by Prete, Hurd, Wells, and Wells, Mantids do not recognize the shape or the body mass of their prey, but only if it is an elongated form that fits into the correct size bracket.
A nymph would only strike at a very small target, whereas a fully grown (female) Mantis, which occasionally eats their (male) conspecifics, would probably consider a locust of about the same length as herself as genuine prey. Never mind that the locust is actually completely out of her league, because of the great disparity in body mass. It fits the other criteria, so let's give it a try!
I would have loved to see Madam actually being successful here, because first of all, the locust eats our (her) plant, secondly it is really ugly and stupid looking, and thirdly that would have been an amazing spectacle. I seriously doubt that she would have had the stomach to finish all of the locust - but what a feast nevertheless!

That Madam considered the locust as prey cements my assumption that she has eaten Mini-Me. He was in the same length bracket as the locust and clearly in her league relative to the body mass. Also, I am convinced now that she also ate the nymph Number Three, which would have been a mere snack to her.
It seems as if we had a fearless, dangerous, and deadly predator in our plant. Long gone are the days of Madam being considered as a sweet and delicate, pet-like creature. I am just grateful that we humans are clearly out of her league ...

Headlong

Well, with all those spider mites and lost forelegs, it was a relief to see that Madam is still there and apparently doing great.
She was at her usual spot tonight, looking into our living room. Maybe she enjoys watching us as much as we are enjoying watching her. Her wings seem to be longer now than before. Perhaps she is a boy after all. We'll see.

Loss

We lost one. On her crusade against the spider mites, my wife detected the predatory foreleg of a Mantis hanging at the underside of a leaf.
There is no doubt about what it is - and the color let's me dread that it is Mini-Me that lost it's limb. I have no idea, whether a Mantis could survive without that, or if it would grow back. It is rather more probable that these are just the remains, and that he got eaten by a larger predator. And the only largher predator in that habitat is ... Madam.
Mantids are known to be cannibalistic at times, and a larger female will eat a smaller male if the chance presents itself. But right now, we only have a few hard facts, and anything else is speculation. I will be on the lookout the next days.

Pest

Our vetch plant is under attack - gazillions of tiny red spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) have suddenly appeared yesterday. Quote from Wikipedia: 
It lays its eggs on the leaves, and it poses a threat to host plants by sucking cell contents from the leaves cell by cell, leaving very tiny, pale spots or scars where the green epidermal cells have been destroyed. Although the individual lesions are very small, commensurate with the small size of the mites, the frequently-observed attack of hundreds or thousands of spider mites can cause thousands of lesions and thus can significantly reduce the photosynthetic capability of plants, greatly reducing their production of nutrients, sometimes even killing the plants.
Usually, one would drive to the nearest Lowe's, buy some really nasty chemical stuff, spray the plant and be done with it. Unfortunately, if we would apply this to our plant, it would most certainly also kill our Mantids.
So my wife bought some chemicals that are applied through the water consumption of the plant, from the inside rather than the outside. This method takes longer and is less effective, so we hope that we did it in time, because those tiny bastards have already damaged the vetch a good deal.

Dinner

Mini-Me caught a moth and devoured it right in front of our window. He went through the body in just a couple of minutes, and left the (paper-like) wings untouched. After that, he just hung there and seemed very complacent.

In the meantime, Madam was sitting at her customary spot at the south side of the plant, waiting for prey herself. No sign of Number Three, the little one was probably hiding, because at night it is more vulnerable to attack than its already bigger conspecifics.

Colony

Well ... three is the new number. While my wife was trying to prevent the plant from toppling over in the gusty wind today, I detected a nymph, maybe a few days old, crawling on the outer leafs of the plant.
I observed her behavior for several minutes and was very much reminded of Madam's first adventures. She also would be found frequently sitting on an outer leaf, when she was a nymph. That behavior changed after four weeks or so, when she only visited those regions when it was dark, and was hiding in the thick underbrush of the plant during the day.
Maybe the nymphs are a bit careless and do not know yet how to behave properly. Because if I could spot her, a bird or a dragonfly would have no problems, too.
Anyway, we now have a Mantid colony in our plant ... and a bird's nest, most probably sparrows. It is becoming a freakin' Arche Noah ...

 

Developing

Yesterday, I assumed that Madam was basically finished with her growing process. Tonight, she showed me what my assumption was worth, by shedding her old skin again and displaying some wonderful new wings. I caught her right after the moulting was over, when she was still recuperating from this strenuous activity. She then usually remains motionless on a branch near to the exuvia for quite some time. That is when I took the picture of her and her new set of wings, which she displayed quite nicely. Unfortunately, I had again to shoot through the fly screen on the lower half of the window, and there was absolutely no way I could have reached her better from the outside - too many leafs in the way. So the picture is sub-optimal, but it conveys the message - she has wings now.
What makes me believe that my assumption that she is a female, is still correct, although she now sports wings (which are a preeminent indication of the male sex), is that she developed them only now. Mini-Me has shown developing wings very early in his life, whereas with Madam this is the first time we see that on her at all. My guess is that those wings will stay the size they are now, whereas Mini-Me's wings will grow to a length that will cover the whole aft body.
For female Mantids, the wings are merely decoration, and cannot be used for flying, as with the wings of the male Mantids.
But what a decoration that is - beautiful!

And this is Madam a few hours later, with wings folded away and at a much better spot to  take pictures of her.

Moulting

Today, I noticed a somewhat sunburnt Mantis hanging from one of the branches of the plant. At first, I thought that Mini-Me had changed the color from green to brown, as Madam had done gradually as a nymph, only with her it was from brown to green.
But then, after observing it for a while, I noticed that it did not move - must be an exuvia!
My plan was always, to eventually collect of of those for closer examination, so I fetched some plastic gizmo out of the kitchen (salad grippers??), and a Ziplock bag. Gently, very gently, I pushed away some leafs and some branches and tried to apply the gizmo so that the delicate hull would not ... WOW! It was by no means an exuvia - it was Mini-Me, jumping to the next branch!
So I took my gizmo and my bag and went back inside - what a surprising encounter!
Then, because I have had enough excitement for that evening, I went to Publix for some milk and eggs.
Coming back after twenty minutes or so, I routinely checked back with the plant and saw ... Madam hanging there hed down on a branch, maybe ten inches away from Mini-Me, who was just in the process of shedding the old skin!
So now we finally a couple of things - firstly, that both Mantids knew from each other, because they were clearly in each others field of view. Secondly, that Madam had not eaten Mini-Me yet - a fate we assumed had befallen the poor devil, because we had not seen him for a few days. And finally, Mini-Me was indeed a boy, and Madam was indeed a girl - male Mantids have wings, which Mini-Me clearly showed after he was out of the exuvia, and female Mantids have none, or just very short, unusable wings, and we could not detect wings on Madam so far.
As I stated before, that will be a most interesting summer, having a male and a female Mantis living in the same plant, right before our eyes!
After the whole exuvia shedding, Mini-Me hung just there, head down like a bat, and rested for quite a while. And Madam did not move either. She is about double the size of Mini-Me, but he is growing very fast, and she seems to be finished with that.
He did not loose his brownish color after the moulting, as I expected - the color did obviously not come from the exuvia (which is rather transparent actually), but it was his own skin color. Strangely enough, his legs are the same green color as Madam's (and the the same color as the branches of the plant), so this gives him a somewhat patchy appearance. I am anxious to see, whether this color stays, or whether it changes to a more camouflage like green pattern.

 
This is Madam, hiding in the thick underbrush of the plant. My wife and I illuminated her with two LED-flashlights.

This is Mini-Me, his back still attached to the exuvia. You can clearly see the difference in size of the old skin to his  "new" body. My guess is, that this will be his final size, or maybe he will shed his skin one more time. Since Madam seems to be all grown up now, and male Mantids are usually much smaller than the females, this could be it for both. We will see ...

Two

As reported before, it is not uncommon that we don't spot Madam for days. In spite of her enormous size - about three inches long by now - she is very good in hiding herself from us. The plant is such a jungle, and she has such a perfect camouflage, that if she does not want to be seen, she is not seen.
The day before yesterday, I spotted her climbing up the fly screen on the living room window. Well, not having seen her for a while, I wondered if this was really her. In my memory, she must have been bigger. Wasn't she as big as long as most of the leafs on the plant by now? My memory could be wrong, so I went through the numerous photos I had made in the last month or so. Although no conclusive evidence presented itself, I began to think that maybe we had a second specimen here.
And tonight, this nagging suspicion was confirmed - during our almost ritualistic search of her in the plant, after the kids are in bed, I spotted Madam, and my wife spotted ... a mini-me version of her.
Where in the world did that come from?
We are totally puzzled, because the mini-me is about the size Madam had a month ago, so this specimen must have had hatched about two weeks ago. That would also explain the latest exuvia that I found, which I always thought to be too small for the size Madam is now. At the time, I thought that it maybe had dried up and shrunken significantly. No, turns out that this very probably was the first exuvia of mini-me Mantis.
So, we have a regular Mantid heaven here now.
My hypothesis is, that mini-me Mantis is a male, and that he is in grave danger to be eaten by the much larger female Madam, once he reaches adulthood and tries to have sex with her.
This will be very, very interesting weeks that are before us, to say the least.

This is Madam. Notice her changed eyes - much more articulated than before, and actually brown by now. I had to use flash, which is usually a no-no in nature photography. But it was pitch black outside and this was the only way to get her picture. I found her at her customary spot - she is kind of a creature of habit, having her favorite spot in the plant, so it seems, and going there every night.

And this is mini-me Mantis - shot from inside our living room, through he fly screen of the window. Madam was about fifteen inches to the upper right at this time, and I am not sure if she already knows of the presence of mini-me. Mantids are known to be cannibalistic in certain circumstances, and she would have no problem to catch the much smaller mini-me.

Clockwork

Like clockwork - today, 14 to 15 days after the last time, there is a new exuvia in the plant. So Madam is still growing bigger.

Well, and I couldn't resist - I bought a book about the Praying Mantids. A very scientific book. THE book. Written by nutty professors and weird scientists, with lots and lots of diagrams, tables, and very tiny text. Some pictures are also in there, mostly black and white studies of sudden movements.
It cannot get any more scientific than that:

The Praying Mantids [Hardcover]

Frederick R. Prete (Editor), Harrington Wells (Editor), Patrick H. Wells (Editor), Lawrence E. Hurd (Editor) 

The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (November 24, 1999)
ISBN-13: 978-0801861741

Tools

Yesterday, we had a very heavy lightning storm here in the Huntsville area. A couple of our sunflowers, one of our pavilions, and some minor plants have not survived the strong winds and torrential rains. The plant where our Mantis lives also took a beating, the top kind of toppled over at a ninety degree angle. My wife was concerned about Madam's safety, but she usually stays in the thickest part of the plant these days, in the middle of the jungle that is formed by the leafs and branches that grow in every direction. So no worries on my side.
And this morning, after we brought the plant back in a somewhat normal position, Madam undertook a little inspection tour. And posed for some close-ups for me in the process.
The picture shows her mouth - a fearsome tool to dismantle her prey. Also, notice the "thorns" on her "fore leg" (they are somewhat out of focus - in that kind of close-up macro photography, the depth of field is measured in fractions of millimeters, and my main focus here was her mouth) - with those, she is holding her prey in a deadly grip while ripping pieces out of them. Good thing we are not on the menu ...

Big

She's become nocturnal. During the day, it is extremely hard to spot her at all, because she usually hides in the thickest part of the plant. Plus, her color has become a perfect match to the plant's color. That is actually a normal process - every time the old exoskeleton is shed, the new one emerges with a better camouflage scheme.
So, yesterday when I was closing the backyard door for the night, I noticed her in the plant. She was crawling around and was acting quite animated. Maybe, when she was a young nymph, she needed all the food she could get her fangs on, so she also hunted during the day. Now, that she's grown big - and man, is she big now - skipping a meal  is probably not  life threatening for her anymore.
Good thing I have a big, sturdy tripod now, and a flashlight, too. Both enabled me to get some photos from her, through the glass of the living room window.
I sincerely hope that the bright flashlight did not disturb her too much, but this was the only way to have enough illumination, even with an ISO setting of 1600.
Today, as soon as it was dark outside, she came out to the same spot again, so I am inclined to believe that this is her behavioral pattern now. The days, when she would enjoy the morning sun on an extended leaf or branch, and when she could be easily found in the outer rims of the plant during the day, are apparently over.

Exuvia, the third

It's like clockwork - every fourteen days, Madam sheds her old exoskeleton, because her growing body needs more space.
Today, I found her latest exuvia, hidden in the thick underbrush of the plant. Very tough to take a good photo of it - everything was in the way.
And then I also saw her again, hiding in the middle of the plant, impossible to reach with my camera.
At least we know now that she is still there and apparently finds enough to eat, so that her growth remains on schedule. Like clockwork ...

Shy

I came back from a seven day long business trip to Germany last night, and found my family in distress - they hadn't seen Madam in four days and everybody was worried about her fate.
Well, it did take me about five minutes of very thorough searching to detect her this morning. she was hiding in the thick inner layers of the plant. Usually, she would take a sunbath in the morning on one of the outer branches, but apparently she had changed her behavior. And her size, too. During my absence, another moulting must have occurred, because what I saw there was a real monster. Her body is not fragile anymore, but very massive and her length must be at least 2 inches by now.
also, her color has become almost indistinguishable from that of the plant - it is extremely hard to spot her when she situates herself in the maze of branches and leafs of the inner plant.
And of course, it is absolutely impossible to take pictures there - too dark, too many obstacles, no clear line of sight.
I just hope that this is just a phase, and that this does not constitute a significant change of habit. Now, that I have all that fancy equipment, and with her growing size, amazing photo opportunities come to mind ...

Grooming

And of course, Madam is still there and feeling well. Here I caught her grooming herself.

Stream Bluet Damselfly

A much more welcome guest we had today at the plant, was a Stream Bluet Damselfly.

Bagworm

Didn't I prophecize it? I am becoming a regular entomologist here ...
Up until now, the world of insects was very alien to me - they lived in their world and better not crossed over into my world, or else I would excat the death sentence on them.
But now I am finding myself strangely drawn to this realm of creepy, crawly critters. Must have something to do with my new photo equipment, and of course it helps if you find the subjects of your photographic interests right in your backyard.
Well, some of those you really don't want to find there - like the bag worms that invaded one of our trees of life. They destroyed one half of it in short time and the jury is still out on whether the stuff we bought at Lowe's and put on them in great quantities will rid us of this pest. Maybe we will have to burn the whole tree down eventually ...

Japanese Beetles

They look like creatures straight out of a 1950s bad Alien B-Movie. They are like locust, invading your backyard and eating everything they can get a hold of. They are too big and too many for natural defenses - which, in our case would be Madam Mantis. No way she could kill one of those monstrous Japanese Beetles, that invaded our sunflowers, the hibiscus and various other plants around the house in the last few nights. The only chance to combat them is to protect the plants with mesh-nets. Annoying, disgusting creatures, a real pest. Can't wait for Madam to get big enough to kill one of those alien-bugs ...

Alertness

Usually, Madam sits on a leaf, preferably head-down, without moving a muscle.
But sometimes, when we make loud noises, she actually turns her head and ... looks at us.
I do not know, whether she actually has the ability to hear sounds, or if this is just a reaction to the sound-waves that change the air-pressure around her. But it is kind of eerie, to be starred down by this creature, as if she wants to tell you "Don't get on my nerves, be quiet!".

Ants

One might not believe that a predator will be harassed by its prey - but I've actually seen this behavior numerous times with birds of prey that were chased and attacked by much smaller birds.
Today, I witnessed a similar thing with our mantis and some pesky ants. Many of those little black garden ants had invaded the plant, and they literally swarmed all over the place - and two of them actually crawled over the mantis' legs.
Instead of defending herself, and just eating the impertinent intruders, which she could have done easily, Madam chose to just leave and avoid any further confrontation. Maybe she was not hungry, or ants do not taste good, or maybe she did not want to declare war on the whole tribe - Madam gracefully, but recognizably p.o.'ed, retired to another leaf.

Some moments later, I wandered around the backyard and noticed a bright, colorful bug in one of our sunflowers. But before I could get a decent shot of this interesting critter, it too was chased away by those ants. They are virtually all over the whole place. We probably need to do something against it, before they eat everything there.

Moulting

 Yesterday, my wife fell into a minor panic. All day long, Madam was not detectable. My morning visit today revealed why - she was moulting again. This apparently occurs every 14 to 15 days, and we have witnessed it twice already.
Wikipedia says:
Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticula in arthropods and related groups (Ecdysozoa). Since the cuticula of these animals is also the skeletal support (the exoskeleton) of the body and is inelastic, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The old, empty exoskeleton is called an exuvia (or "exuvium").
And here is a picture of Madam's exuvia, with the "breaking point" clearly visible at the head.

It is most astonishing that even the antennae are "exchanged" in this process.
The picture below shows her right after the moulting - if you look closely, there are two drops of fluid on her left antenna, right were it protrudes from the head. This must be some kind of fluid to assist with the whole process.

And here is a picture of the "new" Madam - she has grown considerably in the last two weeks. The vicia plant she's calling home provides a cornucopia of food, plus shade and secluded places to retire, kick back, and shed the old skin.

And yes, our vicia plant blooms - with mostly blue, with some white ones, too.
By the way, Madam is not from Carolina - she is from Europe. I identified her today as mantis religiosa, or European Mantis. It is clearly determinable by the black spot she has at her "fore-legs" - you can see this very good in the picture of her exuvia above.
How do I know that? well, I bought a book. About insects. Lots of pictures of crawly, multi-legged critters in it (although no spiders ... what a great relief). Never thought that I would ever become interested in this matter ...

Breakfast

For the first week or so, we were a bit concerned that we never saw Madam eat anything - although we watched her almost constantly. Well, maybe not really constantly, but very, very often ... you get the drift.
Maybe in the first days or so after hatching, a mantis is not really capable of hunting, or they do not need any food right away, or a combination of both.
Now, however, every insect that wanders in the vicinity is in grave danger. And this vicinity is growing day by day.
This morning, I noticed that Madam had caught a small insect and was eating it. Before I could get my camera and be ready, she had already finished her meal. But I stayed there nevertheless, watching her. Then, after a couple of minutes or so, a not so tiny fly came to one of the leafs Madam had in her view.
The fly did not recognize the danger, Madam began rocking forth and back (like Leo Mazzone, the former pitching coach of the Atlanta Braves) and then, faster then the human eye could see, she pounced forward, caught the fly and began eating it, head first.
Although I looked at her all the time, I did not see the deadly strike she delivered to the fly - it was so lightning fast, that everything was over in a split second.
But fortunately, she took her time to devour the prey, and so I could get some really neat shots of that. Well, nature is brutal - eat or be eaten.

You lookin' at me?!

So, we had a little portrait session today. And this is how it looks when you have good equipment - I am so thrilled with my new Nikon D5000.
The photos were all made with the phenomenal Nikon 85mm f/3.5G AF-S DX ED VR Micro Nikkor Lens, plus a macro extension tube (12 mm), and using a mono-pod.
I am still trying the best settings and techniques for these kinds of photos - it is so much fun, and I am learning so much in the process.
In the meantime, Madam has grown to approximately twice her former size already - soon, a macro lens will not be necessary anymore ... :)

Practicing ...

So, we both are kind of practicing our art right now - Madam, how to catch flies, and I, how to take pictures with my new gear of Madam trying to catch flies. :)
The new camera is marvelous - the picture quality is superb, the handling and operation is a dream, but with all new equipment, here too there is a learning curve. So my first attempts of shooting Madam with the macro lens ... well ... it's a learning curve. I'll probably need to use a tripod eventually. The depth of field of that macro lens is extremely shallow and it is next to impossible to get a correctly focused picture by hand-holding the camera. The picture below illustrates that perfectly - her left eye is sharp, everything else is blurred out of focus.

Today marked the first time that I actually saw Madam stalking a prey - those small shiny flies that buzz around the plant all the time. I thought that maybe those are still a bit too big for her, but she brought herself carefully in position, then stood there motionless before she began to rock back and forth ever so slightly. Apparently that is in preparation of her jumping forward, and doing that out of a back and forth motion should give her a little advantage, the split second that determines over live and death for the fly. Alas, several attempts were thwarted, because the flies didn't stay long enough for Madam to pounce on them.
I am really anxious to actually see her being successful at the hunt, because up until now I haven't seen her eat at all. Maybe she's a vegetarian ...

Not yet ...

So, yesterday came my new camera - Nikon D5000. But since then, I had no time to even open the package - so this picture is still with my old Finepix S100fs.
I hope that soon, I'll get some time to learn the tricks of the new Nikon, and then make those photos I have in my mind already.

Growing?

I don't know,  maybe it's just my imagination, but I think Madam has grown considerably in the last week. I should probably skip one photo and pull out the tape measure, instead - just to be sure. I do not have the faintest idea how fast these creatures grow, but with a lifespan of only a few months, things should happen rather quickly, right?

Fixin' to go to bed

This evening, 7:17 PM.

Sunbathing

This morning, 6:17 AM.
And yes, I am painfully aware that the window needs to be cleaned.

Do you see me?

One of the defensive strategies of the Mantises is to just disappear into the background. The camouflage that our Madam applies really works ...

I'm watching you!

Who is watching who? This time, a picture from inside the house through the window. I just ordered a new camera today - although it might appear that this photo is really good, I can assure you that this only is true at this size.
First of all, I had to crop a 4000x3000 pixel file to 677x961 pixels - otherwise the Mantis would have been only a green blob in a sea of green leafs. Then I had to shoot with ISO 400 again to get a manageable shutter speed. This of course means that there is considerable noise - visible if you blow the picture up to 100%.
Then there is the issue with focusing - because of all the leafs in the way, I have to disable the auto-focus and do it manually. No problem, if you have a DSLR with a good macro lens. which I don't have at my disposal now. My old trusty Nikon D70 has some kind of electronic hick up, which leads to all kinds of weird behavior. This is a known problem for this camera, and I already had it fixed once under warranty. But now, six years later, there is no warranty anymore, and also the technology has of course made giant  leaps in the meantime, so it is about time to replace this machine with something new and shiny.
But until this new wonder weapon arrives, I have to cope with the Fujifilm Finefix S100fs - which is a fantastic camera, but very frustrating for macro work.
First of all, the macro mode only works with the lower end of the lens, at 28 mm. Everybody who ever tried to shoot macro, knows that this is not what you want. Macro lenses are usually between 60 mm ans 200 mm.
Then, the camera has a manual focusing mode - which is frustrating to say the least. The focus ring does not work directly on the lens, but activates an electrical motor, which then in turn activates the lenses. Needless to say that adjusting the focus is hit and miss - well, more miss than hit.
The S100fs is a perfect example for an all-round camera, it is very good at most uses, but once you stray from the mainstream, it is merely adequate, or even not usable at all.
So, to make a long story short, for this kind of photographic experience, one most certainly  needs specialized equipment.