Praying Mantis

I have had a fascination for Praying Mantis' since I was in elementary school. This one we found by our garage. My husband said it was standing on it's back legs and actually was hissing at him. He thought he/she was a feisty little creature! I tried to find out whether it was a male or female, but really couldn't find out. Basically because the female is bigger than the male. I didn't have anything to compare with except my memory. Usually they are bigger than this. This Mantis appeared to be young to me because he/she wasn't very big.


When I was in elementary school I had found a female one during play time. My science teacher (who made quite the impression on me) was thrilled and we fixed up a class terrarium. A week or so later I found a male and brought him into class. They mated & then the female bit the male's head off. She layed her egg sack and then in the spring we, as a class, got to witness the baby mantis' be born. Hundreds of them!