Imagine my surprise when I looked to my left and saw a second mantis!  One mantis had brilliant green eyes while the other had brilliant brown eyes.  Could they be male and female?

That would be a resounding yes...  The green-eyed male leapt across my buggy beans and landed on the female's back.

They stuck together for three hours until dark, when I stopped checking on them.  Below is a closeup of their alien-looking mating paraphernalia.

By the way, technically these guys are praying mantids, not praying mantises, since they're not in the Mantis genus.  Also, chances are the female won't consume the male's head after they finish mating since praying mantis cannabilism is probably an artifact of captivity.

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.