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Mrs P Mantis
NormandyLiz
Posts: 788
As per page 122 of the Insect of the Day thread, we were visited last Thursday by a praying mantis. As far as I can tell it's a female.
Her chosen spot last week was a dog bed outside the back door, so when I brought it in in the evening I popped her in the nearby flower bed. Of course, we then spent Friday and Saturday looking for her - being big and bright I'd hoped to spot her but she wasn't there. Oh well.
Then today, just as I was about to tip some kitchen water into the bucket outside the back door, I spotted something odd and symmetrical floating. It was Mrs Mantis. She was bedraggled, colourless and lifeless. I was gutted. I fished her out carefully and laid her on the floor, then went back to cooking with a heavy heart.
After lunch, I went to give her a ceremonial burial under the hedge (having looked at her photos repeatedly I'd got quite attached to her), only to find she was in fact alive. Goodness knows how, but still rather bedraggled and with legs and wings in all direction, her mouth was moving and she turned her head to look at me (probably uttering mantis curses). As the sun dried her out, she started cleaning herself and got everything back facing the right way, and started to pick up some of her vibrant colour.
Her chosen spot last week was a dog bed outside the back door, so when I brought it in in the evening I popped her in the nearby flower bed. Of course, we then spent Friday and Saturday looking for her - being big and bright I'd hoped to spot her but she wasn't there. Oh well.
Then today, just as I was about to tip some kitchen water into the bucket outside the back door, I spotted something odd and symmetrical floating. It was Mrs Mantis. She was bedraggled, colourless and lifeless. I was gutted. I fished her out carefully and laid her on the floor, then went back to cooking with a heavy heart.
After lunch, I went to give her a ceremonial burial under the hedge (having looked at her photos repeatedly I'd got quite attached to her), only to find she was in fact alive. Goodness knows how, but still rather bedraggled and with legs and wings in all direction, her mouth was moving and she turned her head to look at me (probably uttering mantis curses). As the sun dried her out, she started cleaning herself and got everything back facing the right way, and started to pick up some of her vibrant colour.
I had in the back of my mind that people keep them as pets (poor things, but I can sort of see why), so googled what they eat. A slug was all I could get but she wasn’t impressed and I failed to find an insect that thought being fed to a needy praying mantis was a good idea. So all I could do was leave her.
She has, seemingly, fully recovered and for some unknown reason has taken up station under a watering can - I lifted it onto a piece of wood so as not to crush her.
Last year we rescued a fledgling swallow and fed it on dog food till it was strong enough to go back to the nest, this year it's a praying mantis. What next?
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I have one too! It/she has been living on the inside of my mosquito net between the French doors. I will try and take a photo tomorrow. She seems to disappear somewhere for the night and then comes back during the day.
I was going to ask @wild edges if she may be lost or abandoned but she seems quite happy to observe me with her triangular head. Her vibrant green and red bits seem to be fading. I hope she isn't dying of starvation. If she eats mosquitoes, then she has come to the right place except that she will have to share with my "resident" gecko that pops in from time to time.
https://factanimal.com/praying-mantis/
According to the French biodiversity website the name of which I can't remember they are found as far north as The Netherlands and there are some but not heaps of reports of them round here. You sound much further south.
@wild edges If that is the case, it's even more remarkable that she could struggle back from the brink of death. Is it a species specific parasite, do you know? If so, that's remarkable too given how few there are around here. The 'Inventaire national du patrimoine naturel' has just a few scattered records, which of course means more insects as those are just the recorded ones, but still it's sparse.
But thanks to her we have learned heaps about an insect I'd only once encountered while on holiday on Crete in the 1970s, and she brightened my day no end when I first found her.