Found Objects 2: Tiny Miracles Of Nature

"Your transformation
will be the miracle."

-- Holly Lynn Payne, 

DAMASCENA: The Tale of Roses and Rumi

Praying Mantis ootheca (egg sack) 12-1-14

"Today for show and tell,

I've brought a tiny miracle of nature."

-- Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

"For a moment, our eyes see and our ears can hear

what is there around us always."

-- Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

My guys did a lot of hunting over the long Thanksgiving weekend. 

That means instead of sleeping late like most of his his classmates, Leo was up at the ass-crack of dawn, dressed in camo and face paint, hunkered down in a cold cornfield snuggled up to his 12-gauge shotgun hoping to shoot geese out of the sky.

In the afternoons, they went traipsing around the woods hunting rabbits and pheasants.

In all they bagged one goose, one pheasant and two doves (which produce the meat equivalent of a chicken nugget).

While hunting in the woods, they also found several Praying Mantis egg sacks, or ootheca.

It's a good thing they brought them home. I didn't know this, but it's a good idea to relocate Praying Mantis eggs into territory away from the cannibalistic carnivorous mother who laid them so that she doesn't eat her own hatchlings. 

My husband stashed the egg sacks in sheltered spots outside in the shrubbery. Come springtime, hopefully the ootheca will crack open and nymphs will hatch and we'll have baby Praying Mantises again.

Baby Praying Mantises are tiny miracles of nature -- perfect, exact, miniature, impossibly small replicas of the big guys. I love having them around the yard and garden, so I am happy to provide them room and board -- garden plants, flowers and all the associated pests they can eat -- as long as they want to stick around for the buffet.

I guess you could say we're preying for a miracle.

Heh. Heh. Good one.

Hatchlings

"The praying Mantis with its length of straw

Out of nowhere's forehead born full armed ..."

-- Oscar Williams, "The Praying Mantis Visits A Penthouse"

Praying Mantis hatchling 6-25-14

"Think about Praying Mantis. The deadliest ninja predator ...

they are carnivores who will devour their own species ...

as hatchlings, their first meal is often one of their own siblings."

-- Jane Prowse, The Revenge of Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis hatchling 6-25-14

Praying Mantis hatchling 6-25-14

We've been waiting patiently for the Praying Mantis egg sack in our front shrubbery to release its tiny occupants.

Just a couple of days ago I asked my husband "Have you seen any baby Mantises yet?"

He hadn't.

Me either.

Yesterday I finally did.

I was punching in the numeric code to open the garage door after my bike ride, and one of the little dudes was perched right on top of the keypad. The other one was close by on the garage door molding.

These babies were teeny tiny -- the bigger one was only about a half inch long, tops. And even though they look menacing and predatory in close-up, in real life they look as fragile and harmlessly vulnerable as can be, with skinny little legs that are literally hair-thin.

Luckily they weren't in a hurry to go anywhere and I was able to capture a few shots. I looked around for more siblings, but didn't see any.

They say one Praying Mantis egg sack contains up to 200 babies.

I only saw two.

You know, they also say baby Mantises will eat their own siblings in order to survive the early going, which possibly explains why I only saw two.

Maybe these were the last Mantises standing because they ate the rest of the family for breakfast.

And you know what they say about a good breakfast.