Yesterday morning I was cleaning one of the terraces here at the Quinta and noticed a female Preying Mantis under the lip one of the steps. It was a warm December day and assumed she was laying an egg sack, called an Ootheca. She actually wasn’t so as I needed to hose down the area I decided to move her. I have relocated many Mantises by picking them up and they usually stand their ground but this lady was having none of it. She immediately went I to full defence mode and started to grab my fingers with her Raptorial Legs. As you can see in the photos she even opened her wings to make her look scary but actually I think made her look more pretty!
All photos were shot and edited using Lightroom on my Samsung Galaxy S9+ Smartphone.
I moved her using a small stick to grab onto and cleaned the terrace.
A few hours later and I checked and she was back and now she had started to lay her egg sack.
This time I left her get on with it and I have just checked this morning and here is her completed Ootheca. This protective structure will contain up to 200 eggs which will hatch when the warm weather of spring arrives.
If you ever find one in autumn through to early winter and need to move it, it’s always a good idea to make sure she’s not laying.