Rachel (2018)

 After the death of Ivy, my final 2017 mantis, I lost all interest in mantises. I didn't think about them much, except when sitting by the graves of my 2017 girls (plus the token male). 

I found Rachel in the thyme bush outside our house. I'm not sure what I was doing there, but all of a sudden I spotted a triangular head, and then I saw the whole rather large lime green body. 

I mostly remember Rachel for two incidents. The first one was when I put her out on our balcony in a mesh cage, and in the morning, there was a green male mantid on her cage. The next morning, there were two. I put it down to pheromones and figured it was to be expected.

Later, she mated with Micah, one of those three males. Her egg didn't hatch regardless. I'm still not sure what I did wrong; I basically just left it to the elements. 

Actually, there's a third incident that's pretty memorable. One time, I was out on our balcony, and for fun, I placed Rachel on the tree right next to our balcony. Every time she tried to climb out of reach, I grabbed her and pulled her back. After a while, she got the gist and stopped moving. After about an hour, I went inside and watched Return of the Jedi. When I came back out, she was still there.

I tried this again a couple of days later, this time without the hour long period of "No! You stay here!"

Rachel vanished.