Two mantises shared a small enclosure on a north-facing windowsill, in a house in Oklahoma. They hatched from the same ootheca on the sixth of April and they lived, in total, about a month. They ate fruit flies. They watched the coffee maker. They were, at their largest, the size of a paper clip.
One died in a bad molt at dawn on the seventh of May, in the small hours of her third instar. The other did not eat after that, and was found three mornings later, still and quiet, on the moss. This is for them.
It is also, modestly, a fund. There is a small service to pay for — a twig, some moss, a candle, a marigold. If you would like to help with any of these, there is a place to do so further down. There is no obligation. We are mostly just glad you stopped in.
The Big Girl
She was the larger of the two — fourteen millimeters at the time of her departure, around forty-eight milligrams, and a particular way of holding still that suggested she had decided something about you and was waiting to see if you would agree.
She lived for thirty-one days. In that time she stalked thirty-seven fruit flies, completed two clean molts, and survived a long humid Tuesday in which the hygrometer was adjusted four times. She was, by every reasonable measure, a small girl. We never called her anything but The Big.
Her third molt was the one that did not finish. She entered it at 4:12 in the morning. By 4:47 the house was quieter than it had been in a month.
- Eclosed
- 6 April 2026
- Departed
- 7 May 2026
- Days lived
- 31
- Instar at departure
- L3, mid-molt
- Body length
- 14 mm
- Final mass
- 48 mg
- Confirmed kills
- 37 (all Drosophila)
- Favorite branch
- oak, NW corner
i never knew if she was watching the coffee or me — p.
Juniper
Juniper preferred a low willow branch and she stayed there. Where The Big Girl ambushed, Juniper waited. They were sisters from the same ootheca, hatched on the same April afternoon, and we cannot help thinking they understood something about each other that we did not.
She did not enjoy being addressed. She tolerated photography only at dawn. She was twelve millimeters and very green, and on certain mornings she held a single posture for so long that we forgot she was there, and then remembered.
She ate one fruit fly on the eighth of May. Nothing after that. We found her three mornings later in a posture very much like sleep.
- Eclosed
- 6 April 2026
- Departed
- 10 May 2026
- Days lived
- 34
- Instar at departure
- L3
- Body length
- 12 mm
- Final mass
- 39 mg
- Confirmed kills
- 24 (all Drosophila)
- Favorite branch
- willow, low ground
we tried. we really tried. — p.
the days, in order
the things we are buying
A small service requires a small number of things, in a small number of precise sizes. We have estimated them.
- i a hand-cut oak twigto serve as pallbearer rig; commissioned from a local woodworker, who asked very few questions 9.00
- ii three ounces of conservatory mosspremium green, second-cut 14.50
- iii one dried marigoldsymbolic; her favorite colour was almost certainly this one 3.25
- iv two crickets, un-fed, dignifiedin good faith; will not be consumed during the service 6.00
- v a beeswax candle, hand-pouredscent: forest floor, with notes of regret 11.00
- vi four vellum copies of a small eulogyto be read by the mourners, who are mostly us 7.50
- vii a final humidity recalibrationthe hygrometer is to lie no longer 4.75
- viii site cleanup, and emotional damages, plainly 25.00
- ix medical care for the officiantsustained at 04:31 a.m. on the seventh of May while attempting manual removal of the adhered exuvia. itemized: urgent care visit, two superficial sutures to the dominant hand, one (1) week of prescribed anxiolytic, and a referral for grief counseling not yet acted upon. ongoing. 1,847.00
- the total of these small things, and one large one $ 1,928.00
a small offering
Choose what you would like to give. Anything is plenty. She herself was extremely small.
messages, in passing
they were small, and they were excellent. — p. h.