Mounted Mantises - quiet for a long while

I've been prepping more mantises for photogrammetry.  It's surprisingly fussy and I have to keep them in case to keep them from getting dusty.  Though to be honest the case came from doing makers faires.  Even the most attentive parents cannot manage their kids 100%.  One of those flies is actually mostly useless if you look at closely.  It got kid mushed despite their parents best efforts.  Not mad, just how kids are.  So into a case the subjects go.

I won't be posting a lot of finished for awhile.  Most of the stuff I will be doing will be for a large show come spring.

Mounted Mantis

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adult male carolina mantis

Two more mantises died this week (in addition to the male that got bit in half from the previous post) , an adult female Chinese Mantis and an adult male Carolina Mantis.  I tried to hang/mount the Chinese Mantis by just her wings but the wings proved to be far to fragile so more mantis parts for the parts jar.  The Carolina got hung by his right arm.  I'm worried again about it all being far to fragile but I'll have to wait till the weekend (when I can take the weights off) to find out.  His base isn't completed yet.  I'm making a basin that the rod and base will go in to fill with ferrofluid and mantis parts.

Bisected Mantis Video

I've been catching a lot of mantises this year.  It must have been a good summer for them.  This is a male that I picked up that I put with a female I suspected of having not bred yet.  After surfing on her for 2 days straight but not mating she finally had enough and pull him forward.  She then bit off an arm and then through his torso.  It was very vexing because she was clearly full and didn't even bother to eat him.

There's some pretty amazing audio of my friend and I talking in the background but it had to removed.