The scene unfolding in front of my house this morning was simply stunning, like a small natural spectacle I had no idea about. At first, I thought it was dust or maybe ants moving on the porch bricks. But upon closer inspection, I realized they weren’t common insects, but tiny, newly hatched mantises emerging from their mysterious capsule.
From a small, oval structure resembling a foamy cocoon—an ootheca—fragile, translucent creatures were steadily emerging. Their bodies gleamed under the morning sun, while their ultra-fine legs clung to the bricks, to the air, and even to each other. It was as if the wall was breathing and alive. Hundreds of minuscule mantises slowly dispersed, forming a miniature army.
This phenomenon is called “synchronized emergence,” an amazing strategy used by these insects in which all the young hatch almost simultaneously. I was fascinated: how can nature be so precise, organized, and yet so wild?
The answer is simple and brilliant: these little ones are the descendants of a female mantis that left her progeny last autumn, when the air was mild and the grass was still green.
With the arrival of the cold, the ootheca remained immobile, as if dead. But inside, life silently waited, anticipating the right signal. Throughout the winter, the embryos remained dormant, protected from the wind and low temperatures. And now, with the spring sun warming the air and the temperature reaching the perfect level, nature gave them the chemical cue.
Then they—hundreds of tiny creatures—began their mass awakening. Their synchronized birth is no coincidence; it’s a survival strategy: the more young that hatch at once, the greater the probability that at least some will manage to hide from predators and reach adulthood.
Within minutes, they began to scatter: some went into the grass, others climbed the wall, and some hid among the leaves. In a couple of days, they would be hunters—small but ruthless, designed by nature to maintain a perfect balance. I watched them and thought about how much life goes unnoticed around us. While we sleep, eat breakfast, or hurry about, entire universes are being born just inches away.