..she bit his arms off and ate his eye........ 
:
Ah, the love life of a praying mantis
Ds caught a beautiful green praying mantis last week. We have a special mesh insect habitat container that we keep bugs in for a period of time before releasing them. Then, he caught a smaller, brown pm "to keep the first one company"(!). We learned ("we") that the females are green (and, larger), males are brown.
Ds captured moths and other insects and kept them fed quite nicely. Last evening, we watched as their behaviour towards each other changed. They did a sort of "dance" walking this way and that. Finally, she decided that he was a good choice as the father of her future offspring and they began mating.
When they had actually "connected", the female backed-up and they were bent right at the connection of their abdomens, like this: /\. She then neatly bit-off his two arms (the ones that look nasty!) and ate one of his eyes. Poor thing, he had no chance.
They coupled for 5 hours!! Yes, we timed it. Talk about our having an exciting lifestyle...............
During this time, she ate some moths (I guess food and sex go together in all species!) and proceeded to, literally, drain the male with her pumping action. He went from being rounded to as flat as possible. From () to __
Ds surmised that "Male mantises are nothing but sperm in a shell and don't have much fun with the ladies." (his words!).
Towards the end, she walked around the habitat for about 20 minutes, bending this way and that, dragging him over leaves and rocks, trying to release him as he held on, weakly, to whatever he could with his four legs.
Finally, he dropped-off and to the bottom, his legs still moving slightly (whether he was alive or not, I don't know (I sincerely hope not)). Probably automatic nervous system reflexes.
(((Try not to think about all this when you snuggle-up to your husband tonight and want to make love! Though that very final bit does sound familiar....)))
She did NOT eat the male. Not even a nibble (he is still where he fell, untouched and flat). I guess she prefers the other (juicier) insects that ds keeps adding to her habitat!
So, now we await her initiation of egg-laying. It will be cool, because we know just where the egg case will be all Winter (in the habitat) and what to watch for next Spring (hundreds of miniature mantises on silken threads)!
I honestly don't know if we would have done all this had ds been in regular school. I know I wouldn't spend some time each day catching insects to feed her! Ds went through several books of insects to learn about mantises and looked them up on the Internet and found out all sorts of really fascinating information about them.
He also has a pill bug habitat (which I will allow into our house all Winter) and a black widow spider (which he keeps away from me as I am known as the "Spider Killer" in these here parts!
) We are still negotiating as to where SHE will spend the cold months (I'm saying the garage, ds says the house. I am pretty sure I will win this one!)
So, how's the bug life in your area?!
:Ah, the love life of a praying mantis
Ds caught a beautiful green praying mantis last week. We have a special mesh insect habitat container that we keep bugs in for a period of time before releasing them. Then, he caught a smaller, brown pm "to keep the first one company"(!). We learned ("we") that the females are green (and, larger), males are brown.
Ds captured moths and other insects and kept them fed quite nicely. Last evening, we watched as their behaviour towards each other changed. They did a sort of "dance" walking this way and that. Finally, she decided that he was a good choice as the father of her future offspring and they began mating.
When they had actually "connected", the female backed-up and they were bent right at the connection of their abdomens, like this: /\. She then neatly bit-off his two arms (the ones that look nasty!) and ate one of his eyes. Poor thing, he had no chance.
They coupled for 5 hours!! Yes, we timed it. Talk about our having an exciting lifestyle...............
During this time, she ate some moths (I guess food and sex go together in all species!) and proceeded to, literally, drain the male with her pumping action. He went from being rounded to as flat as possible. From () to __
Ds surmised that "Male mantises are nothing but sperm in a shell and don't have much fun with the ladies." (his words!).
Towards the end, she walked around the habitat for about 20 minutes, bending this way and that, dragging him over leaves and rocks, trying to release him as he held on, weakly, to whatever he could with his four legs.
Finally, he dropped-off and to the bottom, his legs still moving slightly (whether he was alive or not, I don't know (I sincerely hope not)). Probably automatic nervous system reflexes.
(((Try not to think about all this when you snuggle-up to your husband tonight and want to make love! Though that very final bit does sound familiar....)))
She did NOT eat the male. Not even a nibble (he is still where he fell, untouched and flat). I guess she prefers the other (juicier) insects that ds keeps adding to her habitat!
So, now we await her initiation of egg-laying. It will be cool, because we know just where the egg case will be all Winter (in the habitat) and what to watch for next Spring (hundreds of miniature mantises on silken threads)!
I honestly don't know if we would have done all this had ds been in regular school. I know I wouldn't spend some time each day catching insects to feed her! Ds went through several books of insects to learn about mantises and looked them up on the Internet and found out all sorts of really fascinating information about them.
He also has a pill bug habitat (which I will allow into our house all Winter) and a black widow spider (which he keeps away from me as I am known as the "Spider Killer" in these here parts!
) We are still negotiating as to where SHE will spend the cold months (I'm saying the garage, ds says the house. I am pretty sure I will win this one!)So, how's the bug life in your area?!
: Wow. Just wow. How totally cool. And wow.
I'm working to get over my fear of them so we can do similar stuff as dd gets older. You definately get the "COOL MOM OF THE WEEK" award. 
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