😱 A few weeks ago was when it all began. Under my porch light one morning, I saw an odd object hanging on the brick.
It was so out of context that it seemed like a dried nut, etched and even carved. I was intrigued, so I snapped a picture and looked up additional details. It was an egg case, or ootheca, of the praying mantis. Still life awaited springtime inside.
As a silent act of respect for the natural world, I left it alone. Each morning, while drinking my coffee, I would walk by and take a moment to gaze at it. It became become a little ritual, a respite from life’s hectic pace. I forgot about it after that.
Right up till this morning.
With my cup in hand, I went outdoors to start another typical day. But there was a change in the air at my door. A faint, nearly undetectable vibration. I held my breath involuntarily as I bent down.
They were everywhere. 😱😱😱 They appear to be dancing in the morning light as hundreds or maybe thousands of them scale the brickwork, move across the doorframe, and spread out on the porch.
What is this? Why are there so many? From where did they all originate? How could they tell when it was time to come out?
It was a startlingly powerful spectacle that was playing out in front of my door that morning. These were young, freshly hatched praying mantises, not just any insects.
What I observed were small animals coming out of the egg box, or ootheca, that was affixed to the brick beneath the porch. The room seemed to be taken over by the hundreds of tiny, delicate mantises. One intriguing feature of these insects is a phenomena called “synchronized emergence.”
But why are there so many insects? Why were there so many? The offspring of an egg laid several months earlier, when the weather was milder, were these praying mantises.
They stayed inactive, latent, inside the egg over the winter.
As the temperature rose with the arrival of spring, a chemical signal was delivered, and the baby mantises all emerged at once, just when the circumstances were right for their survival. Their ability to synchronize increases their chances of surviving predators.
The event was a tiny reminder of life that is frequently hiding in the shadows and waiting to emerge at the ideal time. It was a manifestation of nature in all its beauty and mystery.
