Mantid Microcosm : Catching up on the Microcosm

I have been a little busy and have only had time to check on the Mantid Microcosm and take a few photos but not to write up the blog so it's catch up time!

I've been a little unsure about whether these tiny mantids are moving from the plant I found them on but I think it may be more likely that they are hard to see. When I see one on a different plant like one I've seen before, I think it has moved however it seems that I then find the original again which was hiding out of sight. They can hide quite easily in all that undergrowth especially being the tiny size that they still are!

The tiny brown ones still seem to be tiny and brown but surely they must be due to moult soon! The greenish one seems to be going reddish which is like one I found on the Cumquat tree so perhaps that is the next instar developing under its green skin? Again, time will tell.

Here you can see both mantid nymphs on the Hydrangea - tiny brown nymph behind and the greenish nymph in the foreground.

I have also found a few tiny little nymphs on both the Cumquat and Hydrangea of a yet unknown insect but I am guessing it might be a Katydid as it has long back legs for jumping and very long antennae. It is definitely in the Orthoptera family. If you think you can identify it, you can add a comment below.

Tiny Orthoptera nymph of some kind with very long antennae and large back legs.

Also on the Cumquat tree are some scale insects which are being tended by ants. The ants apparently stimulate the scale insect to exude some kind of honeydew which they feed on.

Ant feeding on honeydew from scale insect - on Cumquat branch.

I found this video which shows another species of scale insect giving honeydew to ants.

I have also been keeping a watch on the mystery eggs on the Cumquat leaf and they are changing colour, in fact they may hatch in the next day or two and I am thinking they could be Spined Citrus bugs which appear in my field guide to citrus pests. *See below. The bug sucks on the fruit causing rind damage but it has some natural predators which are the small parasitic wasp, Trissolcus oenone which parasitise the eggs; the other is the predatory assassin bug, Pristhesancus plagipennis. I am not sure what is going to come out of the eggs as I have seen a lot of little wasps around my garden so it will be a big surprise to see what emerges!

Mystery eggs on 20th November.

Mystery eggs on 21st November. I see eyes in the one top, second from right!

One last thing for this post is the little orange and brown horned moth I keep seeing on both plants. I am not sure but it is like some kind of apple moth. I know, it's on a citrus tree but the common names are not always very helpful. Anyway, it has these kind of horn structures and red eyes so it looks very cool but that is when you look under a macro lens. Otherwise, it can appear as a bit of debris on the leaf; it is so small. I don't know whether it has laid any eggs anywhere yet but it sure likes that area!