The alien appearance of the Praying Mantis makes this a favourite Little Monster! Curious with well developed, extremely large eyes, on either side of triangular head, and the famous praying stance ensures the popularity of this large insect.
Let's start at the beginning!
Mantises of all kinds start life encased in a brood case which looks just like insulation foam.
It is strong and water proof, as it must protect the eggs and developing mantises from autumn until spring when they emerge. Each case contains hundreds of eggs!
Since there is no parental care available for mantises; each emerges as a tiny but capable nymph.
At this size, about 8mm, prey consists of tiny flies and aphids.
Mantises use camouflage to hide from predators, which includes other larger mantids even slightly older members of the same species.
As they develop and grow larger the mantis nymphs become bolder:
In late summer to early autumn the praying mantis has attained its adult size, and a curiosity to match. Rather than scampering away from motion, they will merely turn their head to assess what approaches.
By slowly and carefully positioning your hand in front of a mantis, it will readily climb on!
Cloudy skies also make great backgrounds to isolate the subject!
They also tend to climb upwards, so keeping your hand high ensures it doesn't crawl up your arm to ride on your head!
An adult female waits for a careless insect to approach the flowers.
The abdomen is distended with eggs that she will lay soon.
Finally the expectant mother surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers!
Don't get too close, those spikes on her forelegs are quite sharp!
Follow and upvote to see the next installment in your feed!
Comments are always welcome!
Little Monsters - Part I: Wolf Spiders
Little Monsters - Part II: Golden Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part III: Lynx Spiders!
Little Monsters - Part IV: Decorator Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part V: Black Back Paper Wasp
Little Monsters - Part VI: Dragonfly
Little Monsters - Part VII: Indian Fritallary
Little Monsters - Part VIII: Giant Japanese Hornet
I maintain and reserve copyright on all of my photos.