One of the kids spotted this praying mantis hanging around between the rain gutter downspout and the brick wall. They are such cool guys---the kids and mantises! The head has such maneuverability. It was obvious when it was looking at you.
I read that the closest relatives of praying mantises are roaches and termites. Our school has had its share of those, too. Once, I came to begin a new year and discovered that termites had been munching on my Lincoln Logs while I was gone. And roaches? Well, we do live in Florida.
I also read that they can bite.
As the mother of two sons who are involved in prescribed fire (controlled burns) for healthy forests, I was interested to read that some praying mantises in Australia and Africa have the ability to molt and turn black after a fire in order to have better camouflage in the charred area.
2 comments:
Neat shots! I have seen more large mantises this year than ever. I imagine they can give a good chomp since they bite through all manner of buggy exoskeletons.
Our old school was loaded with both termites and roaches.
The brand new one, ...only roaches!
Lets hope they feed on a lot of them.
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