Beech Tree and Renarda: The Mothers
Not long after the death of Styx, we were in a play of Comus (an old English fairy tale inspired by Childe Roland.) arranged by the homeschoolers. I was the narrator, Theresa was Sabrina (a water spirit), Marie was a fairy and Margaret and Patrick were minions of Comus, the villain, that he had transormed into wild beasts.
One day at practice, Mrs. Derham and Margaret stumbled upon a female mantis. We took her in at once, and christened her Beech Tree, or Beech for short. She had wings, unlike Styx, but rarely flew.
One of the first things that I did with her was to experiment whether or not mantises could swim by putting her on the pool steps. They can't. (I pulled her right out, so don't worry--you won't have to call Animal Precinct.) :-)
We found that we could trick her into eating even stranger things than Styx. The day after we found her, Margaret tricked her into eating a raisin from a granola bar. She didn't seem to like it much. She loved cold chicken, however.
One day, just before the Blessing of the Animals at our parish, she disappeared somewhere in the house, and we couldn't find her. She missed out on the Blessing of the Animals. (We wound up bringing MidCam, ForestStar and Stonehenge the toads and Nancy Blackett the ant lion.) Finally we gave up on ever finding her.
The day we put on Comus (and, it is worth noting, also the day that my mother discovered she was expecting baby Eileen), Margaret ventured onto the tennis court and discovered another female mantis. I had previously named all of the members of Comus' rabble, and Margaret's character was called Renarda. (That's Renard, the French word for Fox, with an A at the end to make it more feminine. Margaret's character was a fox, or a fox-like creature.) We wound up naming our new pet Renarda.
One of the interesting things about Renarda was the fact that she was missing a "stilt". One of the stilt-like appendages of her claws was missing, and we wondered if she had lost it in battle with a larger insect, or perhaps another praying mantis.
She was definitely no pushover and bit my finger hard on two occasions, mistaking it for moving prey. It was all that I could do to wrench my finger from her vise-like grip without hurting her.
One night, about a week after we lost Beech Tree, we were all lingering downstairs in the all-too-short window between dinner and bedtime and I took Renarda down the basement to hunt cave crickets. I heard some joyous shouting upstairs, and a minute later Theresa and Margaret came pelting down the steps to inform me that Mom had found Beech Tree on the curtain of what is now Patrick's bedroom. Now we had two mantises.
We quickly fed Beech Tree and moved her into the mantis cage, placing Renarda in the now-empty toad container (we had set MidCam, ForestStar and Stonehenge free the day before) for fear that they would devour one another if left alone. Nor in this were we mistaken, for the two vicious females did not take kindly to one another. Once when Renarda was passing a see-through plastic bin where we had temporarily placed Beech Tree, she attempted to snap at the other mantis, not knowing that it was impossible to get through the hard surface of the bin.
Shortly after this there was a flood down the basement, which sent the resident crickets packing. Many of our books were destroyed, and we were forced to tear up the damaged carpet. Without cave crickets to feed the mantises, it became more difficult to find them suitable prey. We found ourselves taking the manises outdoors to hunt more and more often.
We were about to go to bed one night when we realized that we had forgotten to feed them. I grabbed Beech Tree and told Theresa to get Renarda for me. Next thing I knew, I was hailed by excited shouts of "Renarda's a mother!" She was, indeed. In her cage was a misshapen, but decidedly beautiful egg case.
We took the mother and her companion down to the basement to eat. Both were ravenous with hunger. Beech Tree snapped at a moving electrical cord and tried to eat it. Fortunately, we were able to find a hearty meal for both of them. Not long afterwards, Renarda died. When we were certain she was dead, we fed her remains to Beech Tree, who was no doubt glad to finally sink her teeth into her long-time enemy. (Margaret wanted to bury her, but food was so scarce that we were forced to be practical.) Beech Tree was now our only mantis. Renarda had died, but she had fullfilled her goal. Would Beech do the same?
******
Beech Tree stayed with us for another week or two. One particular thing that I remember about that time was taking the mantis to the sink and turning on the tap. Seeing the stream of water, Beech attempted to climb it. Confused when her claws went right through the seemingly solid stream, she tried to drink the drops that clung to one claw. Realizing that it was water, she plunged her entire face into the stream and drank deeply. It was one of the most interesting things that I have ever seen a mantis do.
One afternoon, we found that she had layed an egg case, as well. Having done her life's work, she, too, died. We buried her in a cardboard box, wrapped up like a mummy.
That spring, we watched the egg cases. In the hopes that they would be warmed, we left them outdoors. They never hatched. There was only one conclusion to be reached. They had been dried up by the sun. It seemed a shame, that such devoted mothers should have lived and died in vain. But at least we saw them on the way.
In a shorter space of time than we would realize, we would obtain Orchid, a baby mantis. But more tragedy was on the way...
My next post will be about Orchid and Jumping String Bean, the short-lived.
Dear Agnes,
We were so excited to find your Mantis Diaries: Part II this afternoon. We have been checking for it each day. What a great tale. We will watch eagerly for Part III.
Posted by: jennifer in austin | October 14, 2006 at 04:51 PM
I am very grateful for your comment, and it is people like you that keep me writing. Thank you!
Posted by: Agnes | October 14, 2006 at 04:59 PM