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Isn't there one species that feeds on mantis oothecas?

My females lay an average of 4-8 oothecas depending on species. I have never found a real need to re-fertilize females since their hatch rates do not decline prior to the female's quality of oothecas decline which is due to her age and not the lack of sperm. And honestly speaking, after the 6th...

If my larger individuals are dying of old age, then I set them in my indoor garden and let them pass on their own. Most of the time they will lay there and slowly pass away. If I notice any signs that they might suffer (aka dying from infection, bleeding, anything that doesn't look peaceful)...

Looks like a chinese (tenodera) ootheca that was very heavily attacked by something to me. I doubt anything would come out of it, especially considering that right now is the wrong season for ootheca to be hatching. It was probably left over from last season~ The holes are the places the eggs...

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Out of the three pairs I had, all of them jumped on by grapping the tip of the female's abdomen and twisting themselves on which makes them end up backwards. It's kind of interesting, maybe it's a technique passed down from father to son : )

Nice looking orchids! Pre-presubadult males are 3rd instar, and pre-sub females are 6th instar.

Most of the time they're just looking for a drink. I did have a chinese mantis that was hungry enough to try and eat my finger, but don't worry you'll feel it but it won't hurt. It's easy to get them off too.

Sorry, it was only partially directed towards you. The post was meant to be a story which I personally found pretty touching, and maybe in the process of telling it I did tell it a little too dramatically. But I was mainly directing my comments towards the thought that the entire idea is...

Here's a short clip of a D. lobata female, though in my experience they do still catch prey when they are guarding, this particular one may have decided to flick it away simply because the locust got too close to the ootheca. It's an observation, I know it's not tested. Notice that she's...

Another from The Encyclopedia of Land Invertebrate Behavior by Rod Preston-Mafham. The rest of the paragraph was cut off by a copyrighted image in google books, sorry.

Actually, I managed to find an excerpt from the "The Praying Mantis" by Frederick R. Prete which similar observations with Tarachodes which cites a study that ootheca guarding does help against parasites.

Aye.. why do people love to ruin stories. I specifically stated that they may do it unconsciously because this behavior may have evolved because it is beneficial to them in some way. I never implied that she had feelings of love for her offspring. If you have kept D. lobata before you will know...

I've seen people in the reptile hobby use boxes where they put a mesh divider in the middle and fill the bottom with water. No airholes for the box, and the box will stay at 99% humidity. Might help in cases like these?

I personally found this very touching, so I decided to share this with everyone. I will never believe it if someone tried to tell me all bugs do not care about their offspring, because this one (consciously or unconsciously) goes above and beyond to protect her young. Not only does she shield...

Sometimes mantises just take longer to lay when temperatures have been low and haven't been fed much. I've had a couple girls that looked like they were about to blow and have taken more than 6 weeks after mating to lay. One of my rhombodera females actually made her first ootheca in her...

Do you have a picture? P. wahlbergii can and will play dead for quite some time especially after being handled. They usually don't understand that we mean no harm, instead they feign death in an attempt to escape us. Most of the time they play dead by rolling into a little ball and dropping dead...

She's already adult now, she won't be molting again which means the deformity will stay. I personally would just put her out of her misery since she doesn't look like she can get around very easily at all. If you want to try and "save" her, you can offer her food 2-3 days after the molt. You...

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Yep, usually if my males get an injury near the thorax/head I will just let the female finish her job. The prognosis of any injury near that area will usually result in death anyway, although it's helpful to know that headless males can and still will try to mate!