Carolina Female Praying Mantis Pictures

Three photo images of a green Carolina praying mantis. She was born on April 20, 2005, and this picture was taken on August 30,2005. She is full grown and has already mated. Her abdomen is large and she is ready to lay eggs, which as it turned out happened the next day. It took her three and one half hours to lay one large egg case.

What is interesting about her is that she is the only one of the surviving mantids from the same two egg cases, (oothecas), that remained a green color after the final molt, even though she was raised in the same environment with the same moisture content. Supposedly it is the humidity which determines the praying mantises color. In moist conditions they are supposed to be green, and in dry conditions they are supposed to be more brown, but obviously their is more to it than that.