We've (finally) got mantids!
Seven mantids have emerged from the first of our oothecae to hatch. As an auspicious number and since they're incredibly smart, I labeled each of their tubes with their new names: Ender, Valentine, Bean, Petra, Han Tzu (Hot Soup), Crazy Tom, and Fly Molo. The next several will be named Alai, Shen, Arkanian, Dink Meeker, Carn Carby, Dumper, Vlad and Nikolai. Give yourself a cookie if you get the literary reference.
A few pictures of our bouncing baby mantids:
Two mantids dangling from the hatching ootheca.
A freshly hatched mantid (likely female, based on the width of its thorax) on the side of the tank, backlit by a flashlight. (For scale, that green cut side of glass along the right border of the image is about 1/8" thick.)
A few pictures of our bouncing baby mantids:
Two mantids dangling from the hatching ootheca.
A freshly hatched mantid (likely female, based on the width of its thorax) on the side of the tank, backlit by a flashlight. (For scale, that green cut side of glass along the right border of the image is about 1/8" thick.)