Tag : hatching praying mantis

I saw my neighbor had taken to some photographs of baby praying mantis.  I contacted her to see if they were still around.  She had tons of them on some hosta plants but they were very small and were constantly moving.  I was unable to use a tripod and couldn’t hold my camera still enough to take a photo.  Of all the image I got one in focus.  The next morning I received a call the pod or whatever you call it was hatching.  I drove over again.  It was amazing!  I had never seen anything like this before.  Hundreds of baby praying mantis crawling out of this cocoon like ball.   The light was overcast and I didn’t have enough depth of field to photograph such a small object.  Luckily, I had a shoot the day before and left my strobes in my car.  Here are a few of the image I shot.