Gifts from My Daughter

The next interesting gift that Mary brought home was in an extra-large drink cup, so I found a bigger jar and carefully opened the cup. An insect came right out and I grabbed it just in time. Otherwise, I would have had a male Praying Mantis flying around the kitchen. I know it was a male because it was tan, not green like a female. It clung to my finger with its front legs the way it holds on to prey. Some people believe it should be called a Preying Mantis, but when it hold its front legs together, I suppose it does appear to be praying.

Mary said, "I went in to the ladies room at the restaurant and it was sitting on the door. It must have hitched a ride on someone, or maybe it was blown inside and flew around trying to get out." It was a very windy night.

This insect was about 2.5 inches long, a graceful, stick-like creature with long front legs that have serrations on the inside surfaces to hold insects while it eats them. When I did my research on this one, I learned it was a European Mantid (Mantis religiosa), distinguished by its size and by a black-ringed white spot under the base of each front leg (not an easy spot to see--sort of in the armpit area). While this mantis is big, the Chinese Mantid (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis), more often found in the eastern United States, is bigger, usually measuring about 5". Neither one of them is a native to Colorado, although there are some small mantids that are natives. The big guys usually get here because they are sold by plant nurseries to gardeners who want them to eat garden pests. They don't over-winter in this climate, but if the female does find a mate, she may lay eggs. She lays them a packet at a time, surrounding them with a foamy mass that hardens to a papery bundle. The female then dies. She may have already eaten her mate, starting while they were still mating. He doesn't seem to get distracted by this imposition. Apparently, he was intended to provide extra nourishment for the next generation.

In a warmer climate than Colorado, many little nymphs emerge from the egg mass in the spring. However, Praying Mantises being what they are, some of them will eat many of the others, so that

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