That is why I had seen years ago what looked like a funny looking brownish mud ball surrounding a green strub. It was a praying mantis egg casing
They’re kinda spongy and the female lays the casing and eggs in a long stream of goo in the fall, around the twig or stem, and then she dies. They live 1 season. I’ve watched it many times. I had a pet female who used to ride on top of my straw hat all day, and I’d feed her raw hamburger and water, and then take her back to GH-3, where she flew up to the top to dine on flies and insects. I’ll have to post the pic of her on my hat, sometime.