Green, green, green all around!

There has been nothing much to report for quite a while hence no post; the Hydrangeas and the Cumquat had very little going on in terms of mantids and I began to think they had moved on to 'fresher pastures'. However, finally the other day I found more than just the usual lady beetles; adult and larvae, plant hoppers still making the leaves spotty and the occasional small spider. I really don't know where they go when they disappear for days on end but presumably it is down in the foliage and are just so well camouflaged that they are difficult to find.
I found the mantid on the cumquat tree one day but not the others, then another day the one on the Hydrangea bush that is in the shade and finally found the other two - within minutes of each other and not far apart. I was so happy to find the two on the Hydrangeas and congratulated them both on being masters of camouflage and brilliant at survival skills! I don't think they were that impressed with my praise especially when I wanted to record the moment with a photo!
But here's what's changed; they are all almost identical now! So here they all are and you can see how they have grown!

Young mantid on Cumquat tree. You can see its abdomen has got larger so it is catching something to eat! 

Young mantid on Hydrangea near one of the damaged leaves.

Another took to hiding in the shade when it saw me coming closer. I think this is Little Green.

This one on the Hydrangea at the back, which gets more shade, did the same and started to go down the leaf ready to disappear beneath if I got any closer. 

As well as this mantid on the back Hydrangea there is a jumping spider of a different kind or so it would seem as it has a rounder shaped abdomen instead of the long tapered abdomens of the previous salties I saw.I am glad the bulge is not my little mantid!

Rounder bodied jumping spider with a leaf-hopper lunch. 

So, we still have a Mantid Microcosm and today I even saw another saltie/jumping spider back as well as a couple of other spiders that make webs between the young leaves. 

Second batch of mystery eggs on Cumquat

However, I do not know what on earth happened to the eggs I was watching except the heat may have dried some out or maybe they were preyed upon by something. I found a new batch just the same though and thought I could perhaps find out what came out of them but had no luck there either. They are just here one day and gone the next once they become dark. Maybe next time I see some, I will bring them in and put them into a sealed container to see what emerges!

But the festive season is upon us now and so there will not be another post until after Christmas or even in the New year. 

I wish all my readers a happy and safe festive season! 

May you and yours enjoy good times, excellent food and drink (not too much) and wonderful company with much laughter and cheer! 

Hot sun, heavy rain, gale-force winds! Oh my!!

Conditions have been hard in the Microcosm; firstly some very hot weather with the highest temperature one day being just under 40 degrees Celcius (104 F)! The Hydrangea bush took a beating with many of the leaves drying out and withering on the tips.
Following this we had a storm with torrential rains and once this had settled down, it was followed by strong winds!

Sun damage on leaf.

I was checking the Microcosm in between all this extreme weather and although the inhabitants seem to have been very little affected by the very hot weather, the heavy rain and strong wind seemed to have caused some hardship for them. The Ladybird beetles which are usually in the undergrowth seemed to be around no matter what but the mantids went  missing and the spiders were everywhere for a while and I thought my poor mantids had become a spider banquet! However, after the strong winds I could only see one saltie and a couple of different spiders with webby retreats. I can only guess that the wind blew the salties away to another location and blew these other spiders in!

Little spider in its webby retreat.

By this stage I had gone from thinking that the Mantid Microcosm was turning into Spider city after finding the baby saltie and imagining a whole tribe of them wandering around in there, to wondering if it was just going to be a fairly uninteresting bush with some lady beetles feeding on fungus but, never one to give up , I kept looking!
I found a few of the strange bundles of fluff or fur wandering around on the bush; I think they are some kind of mealybug. So another bug to assault my poor Hydrangeas which is looking a bit spotty on the leaves due to all the leafhopper damage and also yellow from the damage by fungus. At least I have quite a few lady beetle larva coming along to help with that!

Strange looking furry thing wandering around on leaves - Mealybug.

I also found some stalked lacewing eggs under a leaf. I am not sure which lacewing it is but could be the green one since I have seen photos like this identifying them as such. However, any lacewing is welcome since they are a predatory bug and might help to reduce the massive number of little leaf hoppers we seem to have this year.

Lacewing eggs on stalks under leaf.

So, by now you are wondering whether there are still a couple of mantids in the Microcosm. Is Little Brown OK? I had seen the green one a couple of days ago but the little brown guy was nowhere to be found. Then today I went out in the morning when it was warm and there they both were on the leaves not far from each other. Hooray! Well, I think it is the same mantids. One is green and slightly larger and the other is now green also with brownish-pinkish markings. I think they may have both moulted since the little guy is like the bigger used to be and the bigger one is greener. 

It makes sense that they had to lay low while they moulted and were at their most vulnerable. I also found the skin of another on the Hydrangea bush behind and also the mantid it belonged to so thought that these ones may have moulted also. So now we have Little Green and Big Green! (LG & BG)

Can you see the two little mantids on here? That's LG on the left and BG on the right. 

I also found the skin of another on the Hydrangea bush behind and also the mantid it belonged to so thought that these ones may have moulted also. So now we have Little Green and Big Green! (LG & BG)

Little Brown mantid is now mostly green!

Big green mantid looking much greener now. 

Mantid exuvia (skin) on leaf.

I don't believe this is where the mantid moulted because it is on the upper surface of the leaf and attached by the head section. I suspect that it got washed off by the rain from the underside of a leaf above where it hung to moult and then stuck there when it dried off. You can see it is a mantid exuvia because of the spiny  raptorial front legs. 

The three eggs left on the original site and one,
somehow now above near the edge of the leaf.

The last piece of news from the Microcosm is the eggs I have been watching on the Cumquat leaf. They have not hatched yet and today with the warmer weather, I rushed to  look at them expectantly only to find only three left in their original position on the leaf! The darkest looking one is up near the top of the leaf and I found a few others on a leaf below. I have no idea what has happened here and would just have to guess at attack by something but they don't look chewed and no ants around. Maybe you have an idea? If so, comment below to tell me what you think.


To conclude this post; I am over the moon that my two little mantids are still using their camouflage, naturally good vision and cunning to keep themselves safe from predators and that the lady beetle larvae are going strong. I'm keeping an eye out for the first pupa too so I can photograph that stage of their life cycle. I don't mind if it takes a while as my arthritic hands and wrists have been quite sore with over-use from all the photography with a heavy camera, lens and flash outfit. Santa really needs to bring me a lighter solution! Here's hoping!