Praying mantis

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Wild and Weird.’ See more responses here.

No matter how you look at them, there’s something wild and weird about praying mantises. They look like Popeye with that spindly body and bulging forearms (no pipe though). Parts of them look like they came off the production line with some assembly still required. They remain motionless for long periods, watching, waiting. When they do move, it’s with a constant back and forth motion to sneak up on prey. Then they strike like a cobra and make short work of their victims.

And yet I find that despite all this weirdness, there’s something endearing about them. They put up with intrusive photographers and they keep still for them. What’s not to like.

Also posted in response to Becky’s July Squares challenge theme of ‘Perspective.’ See more responses here.

20 thoughts on “Praying mantis”

    1. Graham Post author

      I’ve mostly seen them eating insects of one kind or another. I’ve heard that they will take small lizards and birds, which would be something to see. The link in the post has photos of a mantis eating a wasp if you’re interested.

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    1. Graham Post author

      Well, they’re easy to miss, but I suspect you’d be good at noticing them. Perhaps a decline in numbers because of climate/environmental changes?

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      1. David M

        I suspect that you’re right about the climate/environmental changes. Thinking about it, there seems to have been a change in butterfly populations, some species seem to have disappeared while other species seem more common. There seems to be a similar situation with some bird species.

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        1. Graham Post author

          I think those kinds of changes are happening all over, though it sounds like the various lockdowns of people around the world have given some species a chance to bounce back a bit.

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            2. David M

              I follow some nature groups on Facebook and have noticed an increase in reporting on them as well as an increase in feeding and providing habitat/homes for species such as Hedgehogs

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