@ectoparasitoid submitted: todays a very festive occasion for my chinese mantis sochi! shes got her wings and was dried off enough today for me to get a better look at her abdominal segments to learn shes a lady! hopefully the photo of her mid molt below actually attaches but im very proud of my menace for getting this far 💚🤎
Freshly peeled angel! Please tell her I'm very proud of her
Another shot of the female Chinese Mantis! She was such a good model, I photographed her every other day for a few weeks so she got very used to me.
Although I enjoyed photographing her, Chinese Mantises are an introduced species here, and are outcompeting our native mantis species. They have been documented preying on monarch butterflies and other threatened native species.
@thewirewitch submitted: Found this on a stick ion my backyard and suspect it may be from/for a bug! Not sure what exactly it is and was wondering if you might know.
Location: Ohio
Yup, it’s a mantis ootheca! This one looks like a Chinese mantis.