Our friend Shirley introduced us to the bizarre world of Praying Mantids by letting us adopt one of her collection. We went on to have one or 2 more Mantids that we purchased from the Excellent South West Reptile shop in Exeter.
		The one we have the pictures of was  vivid green as a nymph we were hoping that she would stay that colour but after her first moult she turned a camouflaged mottled brown. As an adult she produced 6 egg cases about one every 10weeks or so.
				Here she is defending her egg case, the photo doesn't do her justice as she did look extremely threatening and frightening, if you got too close she would strike out at you with her barbed arms. After a week or two of this protective behaviour she would loose interest and the case could be removed.
		There are many varieties of Mantids some of which are superbly coloured, some are masters of camouflage and others just downright weird. Why not put Mantid in your search engine and see what comes up.