While in my sister's driveway in the middle of suburban Michigan last week, we happened across this very impressive praying mantis, who could give this guy a run for his money.
I took the risk of being devoured just to give you an idea of how big this guy really was.
Click on the first image to enlarge it. It always amazes me to see close-ups of insect faces; they have so much personality. Praying mantises appear to have rather pleasant personalities; kind of like your favorite science teacher, or Mahatma Gandhi. However, we know that appearances are deceiving, because I have personally witnessed a praying mantis devouring a live cricket in a most un-Gandhi-like manner.
Ethan proved that he is not one to be intimidated by carnivorous insects.
In fact, close supervision was required to ensure that both the mantis and the lamb would escape unscathed.
1 comment:
We (by we, I mean Shane, because I was not a fan of the idea) once put a mantis and a caterpillar in a huge jar for Breanna to watch. A couple days later, as we were leaving for church, we glanced at the jar in the garage to see the mantis just chowing down on the caterpillar like an ear of corn. It was the nastiest thing I'd seen in a long time and I'm still haunted by the images. Your pictures have brought back the trauma and now I'm going to have to eat some chocolate or something. :-)
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