Thursday, April 29, 2010

Mantises or Mantisi?

The plural of mantis is actually mantes, but mantises is ok too. In case you're wondering why I need to know the plural of mantis, it's because we had well over 100 of these lil buggers erupt from the egg sack in our kitchen this morning.

And now I bet you're wondering why we had a mantis egg sack in our kitchen, huh? Well that answer is simple: Mommy had an awesome find which resulted in Declan getting a Praying Mantis Pagoda for his birthday. So we sent off for the egg sack and well, the rest you know.

So of the 100+ mantes (or mantises) we're going to keep about 12 of them (6 in 2 separate containers). the rest were released this morning and are more than likely bird food by now. So of that 12, I think we'll be able to keep just 1 through adulthood (as they will eat each other if left in the same enclosure).

Take a look and enjoy these pictures of the hatching. I'll have more to come so stay tuned.


2 comments:

Mommy said...

Awesome! I am sooo disappointed that I missed it :(

zach said...

We almost missed it too, but arty started batting at the container. we were literally walking out the door.