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Waterrat

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I posted a pic of this ant-mimicking praying mantis Gyromantis sp. (Amorphoscelidae: Paraoxypilinae) that utilises burned tree trunks to ambush prey. The female is only 2cm long, wingless and almost invisible against charred tree bark. After two weeks in my care, she laid eggs - oddly enough, the cocoon looks like a hawk moth larvae (another case of mimicry?). The nymphs hatched yesterday and they really look and act like small black ants, running around erratically, flicking their antennae just like ants do.

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Holy Moly! what would you feed those guys?
Fruit flies? Aphids?
 
I fed the female small grasshoppers and march-flies and released all the nymphs (and the female).
 
Nice find and great pics as well. Its amazing how inverbrate genera mimic their prey. I have read somewhere that for every ant genera there is an ant preying spider that looks very similar.
 
great pictures michael. What an awesome experience.
 
I always get kicks out of documenting life histories rather than just portraits of animals.
 
Tell us whats going on with the second and third picture.Are they the eggs in the second?
 
Tell us whats going on with the second and third picture.Are they the eggs in the second?

That's the freshly made cocoon (it's like a dry foam) containing the eggs. Each of those compartments has got one egg in it. In time, the cocoon dries a bit, changes colour and in the 4th pics the nymphs have just emerged.
 
That's the freshly made cocoon (it's like a dry foam) containing the eggs. Each of those compartments has got one egg in it. In time, the cocoon dries a bit, changes colour and in the 4th pics the nymphs have just emerged.

Cocoon is known as an Ootheca :)
 
Correct. I just thought how many people here would know what ootheca is. What would be the next question? :D

I thought you would know, was just pointing it out for others reading the thread to learn, as Ootheca is a cool word that more people should know :p
 
Cool word indeed. Now THIS IS an OOTHECA! Ouch! Wouldn't wana be a female roach.

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