Close-up footage shows an Australian praying mantis build a protective case around her eggs.

The cool video from April 24 shows the insect ejects a frothy foam from her abdomen, which hardens into the protective case.

Also known as an ootheca, this protective case contains up to 200 eggs each which takes anywhere from 40 days to around five months to hatch.

jacobmakesciencefun, the filmer told Newsflare: "The first part of the video is live, the second part is timelapsed. It took about 30 minutes for the praying mantis to construct the entire egg case before flying away."

This Australian Praying Mantis is an egg-laying insect and lays her eggs within a protective case called an ootheca. In this video you can watch her build the protective case in a very similar way that a 3d printer uses filament to make models. She ejects a frothy foam from her abdomen which hardens into the protective case. Each ootheca contains up to 200 eggs. The eggs can take anywhere from 40 days to around five months to hatch. The tiny hatchlings emerge as worm-like larvae and almost immediately moult their exoskelton to become miniature mantis nymphs. These nymphs are tiny replicas of the adults, but lack wings. They are predators and within a day of hatching are looking for their first meal.
The first part of the video is live filmed, the second part is timelapsed. All up it took about 30 minutes for it to construct the entire egg case before flying away.