Mantis

[Nefaro]

Not that anyone asked, but, did you know that praying mantis's are really rather small?  Most of the ones I see are not much longer than your middle finger.  The biggest one I have ever seen was from the tip of my middle finger to the base of my palm.

The mentions in the Laugh Pics thread reminded me of a larger Mantis I photo'd a couple weeks ago, hanging on the side of my trash bin.. and later outside my window.





This one was about the length of my hand (7-8"), as MD mentioned.  Didn't get a good top-down angle on her, this was as much from the front. 

But I've seen one that was much larger, when I lived in the Jed-Clampetville boonies.  That one was close to a foot long (and mostly brown colored at the time).  This one was interesting for it's size, but that massive one was pretty awe-inspiring.  Wish I had taken a photo of that one at the time, but it was gone when I came back.

They've always been both a bit alien-creepy and fascinating at the same time, to me.  Mainly because they always seem to slowly turn their head and look directly at your face when you look at them, even when you move.

This one on the trash can ended up crawling down my driver's side window, while I was driving down the street the next evening.  Evidently it flew over and landed on the roof of my pickup sometime after I snapped the photo and sat there until then.  Must've had too much wind and flew off during my drive - didn't see it again.  Or it's still following me?   ???

[bob48]

Cue 'Jaws' theme music.....

[GDS_Starfury]

[SirAndrewD]

I really, really thought you were talking about this...