CLOSED: Two cocoons or egg cases. Can anyone I.D.?

Came across both of these today and I'm wondering if anyone knows what creature made them. :)
First one I think may be a polyphemus moth.
It's on a Beautyberry and is about 2" long.
Here's that one.

Here's the other. It's on the underside of an orchid basket. It's about 1.5" long.
Many thanks for taking a look!
Deb

Deb...the second picture looks like a praying mantis egg case. See this pic....
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/2114/

Sheila: I believe you are absolutely right! I had no idea they looked like that. Thanks! It's kind of ironic, because in summer I usually see my mantis pals on the Beautyberry, which is where the other cocoon thingy is.

This message was edited Dec 27, 2008 7:51 PM

The second one is longer than the mantis cases I see. BUT mine are Chinese mantid not Carolina mantis.
It looks to be of the same dried foam structure, light and hard.
I found a new one yesterday after the snow melted off a rose bush.

It looks like a Carolina Mantis ootheca. I am not sure. It might be Stagmomantis limbata.

Do either of you recognize the first one? It does look like the polyphemus I have seen.

The first one looks like Polyphemus to me. I saw fewer this past year around Charleston (adults, larvae, and cocoons) perhaps because of the dry conditions.

it seems that the entire forum has been overtaken by mantis threads all of a sudden and these threads are all from years ago so the original poster may or may not be around to actually respond.

Oops. Im sorry. I will try to post on only recent threads. Strange that I thought that was a ootheca. It looks like a moth cocoon.

Hi, all who have responded since I as last here. Thank you so much ~ I have had a busy time and am just getting back to DG again.

Happy, it doesn't hurt to post on older threads, just know that in some cases you may not get a response as some of the posters are no longer on site. There is a lot of good info in older posts as well as in closed posts. Trackin wasn't warning you off, just giving you a heads up.

what moon said.......:-)

GRIN....