Sunday, August 28, 2011

Mantis

This afternoon I spent a few hours with 5 different praying mantis. Brown ones and green ones...great subjects and they are so much fun to watch. It was windy and with the bright sunshine made it a bit difficult to get some good shots, but I did my best. I have never found them on cloudy days only on warm sunny days in late August and September. Mating takes place in September so I think today they were on the look out for a mate. 2 brown colored males, 2 brown colored females and one green female. 


 I was trying to get some tight close ups of her head and front legs, but she had other plans. She climbed onto the lens...so I gently lifted her up and took a few shots and carefully placed her in the grass.
I found this mantis being attacked by some very small black ants. It's a life or death struggle in the insect world.