It's also been at least 105 all week. Late August, how we hate thee and long for mid-September. This is what we do when it's hot out: legos and computer.
Anyway, I was cold one day from being under the air conditioning all day, so I took the kids outside in the afternoon to burn their feet on the sidewalk. Wisely they kept to the grass.
I sat in the sun and looked at my hollyhocks, which are lush and green, but never did manage to bloom again. And I noticed this guy. (Not my photo)
He was about two inches long, and just hanging out on a stem. I picked him up and let him run all over my hands for the benefit of the kids, who were dubious. We watched him turn his head around to stare at us, and fold up his little praying-arms in front of him.
I put him back on a leaf, and watched him while the kids played. The flies and gnats were busy, and they kept wanting to land on me and the hollyhocks. Whenever a gnat landed near the mantis, he whipped out his praying arms and tried to grab them. He missed twice, then actually snagged a gnat out of the air. He moved too fast for the eye to follow, but suddenly he was munching a gnat. The kids and I watched this in fascination.
He really watched the big houseflies, but none of them landed near him. I could tell that for a mantis his size, a housefly would be a real feast.
1 comment:
Cool, that is something I have never done is sat and watched a praying mantis eat a bug. Well, at least you get to do normal and come over for awhile.
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