robot•jumping•rope

my sweet heapers of birthday wishes, meet winifred:

she arrived yesterday (exact time unknown) weighing in at approximately nothing and looking to be about 5cm long, light brown in color, and the spitting (no pun intended but there you go) image of her mother, Elizabeth (sadly no longer with us; this is a posthumous delivery).

we were SO excited to see that one of our 3 egg cases produced a live mantis. they sat on the top of my eldest’s desk from November until yesterday, when we remembered them and thought it maybe a good idea to put the jar on a sunny deck, just to see what might happen.

i don’t need to tell you good things often come to those who wait. and benignly neglect.

we must disclose that winifred, as small, delicate and innocuous as she may appear, immediately consumed the only sibling to emerge from the sac (named scarlet, as we hope she didn’t give a damn), for mantids are cannibals and even (especially?) in the wilds of a suburban backyard will turn on their own kind for nourishment. hard fact, but necessary for a true understanding of the sometimes dark underbelly of the insect world.

i thank you for your birthday love. and so does winifred, who was blown from this stick within a few hours, hopefully carried by the gust to other friendly blades of grass where she* is now munching on microscopic creatures and preparing for her short but productive lifespan.

*of course, she could be a he, in which case we’ve decided on fred, just to be safe.

happy wednesday.