Can anyone identify this?

[AlanGW]

Found this on one of my terracotta pots today and have spent about an hour on Google trying to identify it without success.

The casing is rock hard and it is firmly attached to the pot

Any answers?

Alan

[cyprusmax47]

Perhaps a dried out scale insect.... quite large though

Max

[Devil]

It is the egg-casing or ootheca of the praying mantis. It can contain from 10 to 100 eggs. When the nymphs hatch, they eat their way out of the ootheca, leaving tiny holes in the outer casing. Yours haven't yet hatched. When they do hatch, some of the nymphs will cannibalise their siblings. The nymphs look like the adult mantis, on a tiny scale (2-3 mm long), except they have no wings.

[AlanGW]

Many thanks Devil.
I look forward to the hatching and will try to get more photographs,
Alan

[Band]

Easy, it's a 10 cent coin!

[josef k]

Yes it is praying. One school of thought is that it is because their rocking motion is reminiscent of that done by some people when praying. Another that the design of their front legs are reminiscent of someone praying.
Whatever, they are a gardeners friend.

[kansas]

We had one of these our our gate, and we were lucky enough to see them when they hatched. Tiny, tiny things that moved very quickly and could jump several inches from the gate to the wooden fence.