Quote:
Originally Posted by goosey
Great images! Until you see the ones in the pot, you dont appreciate how tiny the wasps are. I would have thought that some mantis hatched and survived or they would have died out years ago and so would have the wasps of course. I wonder what the ratio's of survival actually are?
The wasps are very attractive with their metalic sheen. Thicko question coming up  - Do you know why they have such disproportionately large tails? |
I'm not sure what survival ratio would be, but you are right - a lot of mantis do survive. I have watched three egg cases in containers over the last year or so - one had all mantis emerge, another had mostly wasps and a few mantis, and this is the only one that had no mantis emerge. However I've no idea what emerged before I collected the egg cases or after I put them back in the garden.
I'd say the females have such a long ovipositor so they can poke deeper into the foam egg case of the mantis to lay their eggs. When you look at the second photo, the mantis egg case is huge compared to the size of the wasp.