Mantodea

I recently caught a picture of this guy as he was sitting on the door mat outside our apartment:

He is a Praying Mantis, and MUCH smaller than the one I saw in Iowa during a cross country road trip in 2006:

It's difficult to tell with nothing for scale, but this guy was huge. Also, those brown things on his back, they're wings. He flies. I'm not generally creeped out by insects, but when something this big is hovering around my head all bets are off.

Some facts about Manises.

They have triangular heads poised on a long "neck," or elongated thorax. Mantids can turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings with two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them.


Typically green or brown and well camouflaged on the plants among which they live, mantis lie in ambush or patiently stalk their quarry. They use their front legs to snare their prey with reflexes so quick that they are difficult to see with the naked eye. Their legs are further equipped with spikes for snaring prey and pinning it in place.


Moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects are usually the unfortunate recipients of unwanted mantid attention. However, the insects will also eat others of their own kind. The most famous example of this is the notorious mating behavior of the adult female, who sometimes eats her mate just after—or even during—mating. Yet this behavior seems not to deter males from reproduction.

Source: National Geographic


Currently Looking Forward To: Camping in the Sierra foothills in a couple of weeks.

Currently Listening To: The Darkness-Permission to Land