Grishnak Sheds his Second Exoskeleton

So the little monster is getting bigger now. And it appears that the manti are sort of gooped up in their exoskeleton, and when they shed it, they expand? Shuddery memories of goopy aliens from the original Alien movie?

Because when the manti first emerge from the egg case, evidently they chill initially, to let their exoskeletons harden. I guess it is a little like an egg. You boil an egg, then peel it. Only this time, when the egg is peeled, the egg expands, and forms another shell.

There has to be a better analogy.

But I get home from work, too late to do anything particularly meaningful in regards to the dissertation and other insundries -- so I tend to the sunflowers, and start checking in on the new manti -- and last but not least, there is Grishnak -- but wait -- something is different.

Here you can see Grishnak, upper left, and the exoskeleton -- and he was still connected to it. The pictures were a little hard to get right, but you get the idea.



A different attempt, with a bit of scale added in: