Hoppy gets his first taste of freedom. He likes it. He likes it a lot.

Since posting the splendid news about Brownie's new wings, one of the other mantises, Gimpy, has shuffled off his mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. Gimpy, the reader will guess, had a bum leg for the last month or so of his life and frankly I'm surprised he made it as far as he did. But his death sort of pressed the issue of a mantis's normal life span and what we, as responsible pet owners, should do now.

Brownie and Hoppy both seemed still sturdy and curious about life, so we have decided to roll the dice and hope that one is a male and the other a female, and have let them go forth into the garden, just like Adam and Eve (except in Santa Monica) to live out the rest of their lives in natural suburban splendor.

We had a little ceremony where we took the lids off their Critter-Keepers and let them roam around on the patio table. Sam and Kit called out words of encouragement like "Make a nice big egg sac, and bring back hundreds of baby mantises in the Spring!" and "I love you Hoppy! Have a good life!" I felt like singing "Born Free" but it probably would have made everyone cry. We wanted to take pictures but the camera battery was dead after a long wedding reception the day yesterday (the wedding was for some humans we know, not mantises).

After delivering our exhortations to Brownie and Hoppy on what we hope to be their wedding day, we carried them over into the bushes and put them well into the brush to keep them from getting eaten by birds. Brownie didn't seem too keen to go, but then a moth fluttered by and, no joke, she charged off after it like a cheetah gunning for an antelope.

Take care, Brownie! Go get 'em, Hoppy!

We named this mantis Brownie because he suddenly turned brown one day. The change was so sudden that we all assumed he was about to roll over and croak. We were wrong! Brownie has not only stayed alive, he's gotten bigger! He is now the largest of all the mantises we have and, what's more, he's suddenly grown wings! Show us your wings, Brownie!



Here you can not only see his wings, you can see him lick what I can only imagine are cricket-guts off his foot.  Cleanliness is next to insect-like behavior, Brownie!



There's a slightly better shot of his wings. It's hard to hold a mantis with one hand and take a picture with the other. Anyway, he's gotten huge, as you can see, and he's ready to take on flying insects! No place is safe from this winged menace!

Heck of a job, Brownie!

Bucky as a hatchling (top left).


The young Bucky.


The mature Bucky, clowning for the camera.

Bucky, who dedicated his entire life to teaching a California family about the life-cycle and eating habits of praying mantises, is dead.

His lifeless body was found in his Critter-Keeper early Saturday morning. Cause of death is unknown, although, as he was over four months old, foul play is not suspected.

"He" (his true sex was unknown) lived a full, healthy, insectoid life.  He was purchased as one of hundreds of mantis hatchlings contained in his egg sac, which came in a net bag.  Most of his hundreds of brothers and sisters were released into the wilds of Santa Monica's Douglas Park, but Bucky seemed to understand from the beginning that he was destined for greater things.

He was known for his inquisitive nature, his upbeat, sparkling personality, his love of children and sunshine, and his voracious appetite. He enjoyed a good joke and cherished the hours he spent hanging upside-down. He would drop whatever he was doing in order to crawl on a hand and maintained a presence on the internet through a "blog" run by one of his owners. He was known as the cockiest, most adventurous and most handsome of mantises. Sadly, he never actually had the opportunity to mate with one of his kind and produce young.

His job title was instructor, but Bucky was a mantis who could not be constrained by labels. In his pursuit of larger truth he became an idea and an ideal, a bringer of joy to the handful of people who were blessed to encounter him.

He is survived by his brothers Gimpy, Brownie and Hoppy. In accordance with mantis tradition, his remains were devoured by crickets.

Gaily I lived as ease and nature taught,
And spent my little life without a thought,
And am amazed that Death, that tyrant grim,
Should think of me, who never thought of him.
~René Francois Regnier

This is not a bug!  It's the skin of a bug! 

As they grow, mantises shed their skin every couple of weeks!  It's true!  And the skin left over is a cool artifact all by itself!  It's always surprisingly whole for some reason.  We keep our dead mantis-skins in a special little container so we can look back at their growth progress and sigh and reminisce about what they were like when they were babies.  It's just like marking your child's growth spurts in their bedroom doorjamb.  They -- they grow so fast -- (sniff) --



Meanwhile, here's the little guy who just shed his skin!  He's feeling frisky and full of beans!  Or cricket, anyway.  Look how interested he is!  He's ready to greet the world!  I'm going to call him Bucky.  Hey Bucky, you ready to greet the world?  Bucky, world; world, Bucky!



Uh-oh!  Bucky hears a noise!  Is it a burglar?  Is it terrorists?  No, it's just the paper boy, Bucky!  Calm down, boy!  Bucky feels very protective toward me, I can tell.  My hand is his territory and he's going to defend it from anything that comes his way (provided it's an insect smaller than himself).  I'm going to call him Guard Mantis Bucky!



Bucky's decided the coast is clear.  Look, he's giving me the "thumbs up" sign!  He thinks he's people!  How could you not fall in love with that face?  Bucky's going to be a movie star!  You're okay in my book, Bucky!

In the manner of 6-year-old boys, Sam wants creepy-crawlies as pets. In the manner of parents of 6-year-old boys, it falls to me to take care of Sam's creepy-crawlies. Currenty we are raising a half-dozen snails, a few dozen pillbugs and a 9"-inch Giant Black African Millipede.

And then there are the mantises.


click for larger view

( warning -- insect snuff within )