JULY IN MANTIS PARADISE

Lau Da & Lau Er continued to amaze us with how attached they became to us. July also brought the second shed for Lau Er and the third shed for Lau Da.

We discovered that the “girls” were very keen to eat flies which we caught and tied to a human hair – Lily’s of course – and dangled in front of them. You can see from the picture the fly still has the hair tied around it. When the mantises got to the hair, they simply clipped them off with their sharp beaks.

We also discovered that they could be a bit picky about what they ate as in the case of the little worm we put in front of Lau Er. We watched and waited as she just stared at it.

One day we caught a little baby lizard in the back yard and put a fly next to it. It seems lizards enjoy flies just as much as praying mantises do!

Both Lau Da and Lau Er enjoyed hanging out with us and loved to either explore by crawl over things or usually us. It is amazing how gentle they can be when crawling on you, especially when you see how aggressive they are in capturing their prey.

GENESIS - THE BEGINNING

In the beginning there was Lau Da and then there was Lau Er.

This blog documents the lives of 3 generations of praying mantises - and counting - but more importantly how we have come to realize that praying mantises are not bugs at all, but rather some sort intelligent life forms we refer like to refer as "aliens."

It all started out on the 3rd of June, 2007 when we found a little green baby praying mantis in our front yard. At first we didn't even realize it was a mantis it was so small. I have seen many praying mantises in different parts of the country but all were adults and I had not even considered what a baby one looked like. A few days later we found a brown one about the same size. Since we found the green one first, we named her Lau Da which means "the first" in Chinese. Aptly we named the second one Lau Er, which means "the second."

We were quite amazed at how friendly they were right from the start and how they seemed to "recognize" when us when we were talking or paying attention to them. Most people don't realize it but praying mantises are the only insects that can rotate their heads 180 degrees like humans can. It is kind of strange watching a bug turn its head to look at you!

After handling the first little one for a while, we decided to place her (more on differences between females and males later) on our pepper plants in the back yard. The next day we noticed Lau Da hanging from a leaf and shedding out of her skin. This was quite amazing to watch! As it turns out, this is how praying mantises grow. During their lifetimes they shed about 7 or 8 times until they reach maturity. When mature, they do not shed any more.

A couple of days later we went out to check on our new "pets" and discovered Lau Da eating a fly she had caught. It was quite amazing how she was holding it and devouring the fly head first. We later discovered that they always go for the head and eat their meals that way. As you can see in the picture, the fly is almost as big as Lau Da!