I suppose the most widely known fact about the Mantis's life, is that the female will often cannibalise the male after mating; nothing new there then!
At this time of year we also used to find Stick Insects, but I haven't seen one for years.
13 hours ago
Goodness that's huge - I didn't realise they were European - they seem better suited to jungley climes.
ReplyDeleteF*ck me!
ReplyDeleteI would run a mile if one of those suckers walked ( or prayed) towards me
Last year I had one land on my face!
DeleteThey are amazing,I have seen a brown one though they are always a beautiful green.
ReplyDeleteNever marry a Praying Mantis.
ReplyDeleteNow you tell me!
DeleteSpectacular insect. Never seen one before.
ReplyDeleteWe get loads round here too, both brown and green. Like you, I can see why the kids love them. I find the way their heads and eyes follow your finger if you wave it in front of them quite charming. Rather like an intelligent little alien!
ReplyDeleteIt is always neat to find one of these creatures. I saw a few in my gardens this year. I also come across a stick insect now and then but they are harder to notice.
ReplyDeleteOne of my sons did a project on the praying Mantis (We still have it somewhere) . . . Extraordinary creatures.
ReplyDeleteI came face to face with a green one in the shower recently. Needless to say I hopped out pretty fast. They are quite an impressive insect.
ReplyDeleteAnd very friendly, Sue!
DeleteFunny, now that you mention it, I am not seeing the Stick insect either! I love the Mantis. They are so intriguing. Nice photo of this guy.
ReplyDeletehandsome fellow, and that hand aint too shabby either! I've never seen a PM is my environs. Don't know if they don't exist in these parts, are whether I am horribly inattentive.
ReplyDeleteCharming?? it's a critter!! lovely to look at a photograph of one I grant you, but as for seeing one up close and personal I have an irrational fear of that......
ReplyDeleteHadn't realised these live in France. Kept stick insects as a child. Not a patch, I would think, on a Praying Mantis. The babies were fine but the grown ups did nothing but sway - and as well as looking like sticks, they would stick to one's hand. I'd pretend I didn't mind - while, secretly, panicking.
ReplyDeleteI used to think these were lovely insects but discovered, last year, that they were eating the Monarch Butterfly larvae so they are now dispatched with regret.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether they change colour according to their environment. Perhaps that one was amidst brown leaves seeing that it is autumn down there.
Maybe he was just old and leathery.
DeleteWhat a handsome specimen! I love those things.
ReplyDelete