This morning as I opened windows and doors for the wonderful fresh air, I noticed a small-ish bright green fellow (or lady) on the top of my side porch stairs. It was clearly a young praying mantis, so I very quietly went to check her out. She is about 3″ long, which makes her still a youngster, and in the way that only a praying mantis can do, she rotated her head, watching my every move as I viewed her from every angle without getting too close as to disturb her. Time to get the camera!
By the time I’d come back out, Pumpkin, the orange cat next door, was coming over to say hello and see what was happening, and was now right next to the praying mantis. I figured the mantis was a goner, but Pumpkin was totally oblivious to her presence. What was more amazing was that the mantis, while watching Pumpkin’s every move, (she’s actually looking right at him in this photo), only made one tiny move herself. It was quite easy to catch a couple photos after which I quickly lured Pumpkin to my back door and away from the mantis.
Now I know we’re not talking suicide wish here, but I have to imagine there is a sort of instinctual or inbred mantis bravery in maintaining one’s position in the face of a “monster” so much larger. I also understand the concept of camouflage in nature, but have to wonder … does a young praying mantis not yet know that they’re not exactly blending in?
So after Pumpkin had gotten bored and had exited the porch via the back steps, I switched to close-up mode and returned to snap a few more shots of my very photogenic subject.
p.s. I just checked, and sunning herself on the side of the house is the now almost glowing, bright green praying mantis . I expect looking for a more suitably sized meal than Pumpkin is on her agenda.
Still A Dreamer 
AWESOME photos, Jeanne! And I’m glad that Pumpkin didn’t get too close–praying mantises can bite! Really! When MonkeyKid was still in a stroller, we saw one outside of Kohl’s. I was thrilled she’d get the educational opportunity to see one up close, so I gently picked up the mantis–which promptly chomped me on the finger and jumped away! OW! We ran inside the store to ask if they were poisonous (I was by myself with MonkeyKid, and was worried about passing out while on the Mom-clock), and the store personnel just looked at us like, “Oh, this is SO not in the employee manual!” Then, I had to call Husband Guy at work and tell him what happened. As he frantically Googled “praying mantis” and “poisonous,” he paused to say, “This kind of thing only happens to YOU, y’know!” (BTW, I didn’t pass out or die or anything, but it was a while before I felt like I could show my face in that Kohl’s again!) Ah, ADVENTURES! 😉
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Thanks, Ame – I couldn’t resist photographing her. It hadn’t occurred to me that the mantis might bite Pumpkin, but now that you mention it, I recall, in reading about them in the past, that a praying mantis can actually take a HUMMINGBIRD! No wonder she wasn’t going anywhere in the face of the big orange fuzzy creature.
Glad you didn’t suffer any aftereffects, but it is a lesson to all of us to not pick creatures up in our bare hands if we don’t know their natures.
So I guess MonkeyKid knows what not to do now! LOL.
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