We have our first full grown mantis! Michonne molted into an adult last night. Here are two quick pics I took this morning, not the greatest as she is still a paler color from her molt and the lighting wasn't great this morning for pics. Documenting here so I know when she can be mated, she needs 2 weeks as adult, as do one of my males, who are still one instar away from adulthood.

Race cars and praying mantis

I have a friend named Lori (just like me!) who went to the nascar race at Bristol Motor Speedway last night, I was already a little jealous because I love nascar so much and then she sends me this picture this morning. Yes, a male praying mantis decided to try to come watch the activities at the track with them! She said her husband tried to squish it but he kept flying right back to her. This has to be one of my new favorite praying mantis pictures, love that you can see the track in the background! Thank you Lori O. for thinking of me and snapping this so I can see.

UPDATE

Found a new Michonne and also replaced our old Daryl who was really small with a male I found that is on the same instar as the females (same age) Here are a ton of pics.

RIP Michonne

This morning one of our females had to be euthanized. She molted last night and must have fallen, her upper arm was twisted and broken. I tried to straighten it but it was unusable. Have to have both forearms to eat. Molting will repair broken back legs but upper arms don't repair so not much we could do It was Michonne. I am on the look out for another female, and I promise to try to get more pictures up soon, things have been crazy lately at our house and I didn't have the time I thought I would to take pics

New Breeding Season 2015-2016

New breeding year 2015-2016. Be patient with me as I start blogging again. Last year didn't turn out to be what I wanted for this blog, as I didn't keep up with it as I should. I will try better this year. I am in the process of taking photos of the 4 I have currently. 2 males and 2 females. Last years breeding only gave me one ootheca but it did hatch successfully on May 27th, but I know the yard itself probably had many ootheca that were laid by the ones that live outside. My theme for this years names is the tv show The Walking Dead. I have a Carol and a Michonne for females so far and Daryl and Rick for boys. I intend on trying to keep it to just these 4 but who's to say I won't bring in more?

Working with a new camera and still playing with my old one so some of the pics not be the best but I'll put up as many as I can. Here are 3 of my biggest female, Carol. I'll take more today and tomorrow of the other 3 and share those as well.