Curious

Ain't he just the cutest?

In early October, as I was prowling my school's gardens as usual for more subjects to photograph, I discovered these wonderful, enormous mantises (mantis? mantes? mantids?) all over a stand of huge grasses. For the next four days, I got to interact with them, letting them walk all over me, taking pictures, and just admiring them. I suspect they're Chinese Mantises, but I'm no expert. Up to four and a half inches, and several each of green and beige. I was able to count five of them at one point, but there could easily have been many more hiding. Even more interesting, there were several hardened egg cases attached to the stems of the grasses, and at one point I came upon one as she had just completed laying one. (The sad epilogue to this is that a few weeks later, the gardener trimmed these grasses to the ground in preparation for the winter, and I doubt she spotted and saved the egg cases. If I had known ahead of time, I might have saved some of them in my fridge until spring, so I could watch them hatch. Sigh.)

Anyway, this guy is one of the friendliest green ones I found. He walked all over me, and although I made some half-hearted attempts to get him to do a threat display (like some of *Blepharopsis's photos [link] ) he was so placid that nothing fazed him. Even sticking the camera in his face only engaged his curiosity. I tell ya, I may have to get some of these guys as pets at some point.

Also check out his ladyfriend, here.