Praying Mantis ~ In miniature

Wow, the thumb really puts him into perspective. Nice photos!

Wow! The praying mantis and the thumb picture needs to go in National Geographic Magazine! What a delight! Fantastic photos!

Wow. He really is tiny! How cute.

I love praying mantis!

Wow. He really was tiny. The thumb seems huge next to him. Glad you didn't pulverize him.

I'm so glad you all are enjoying my pictures...nice to know that I'm not the only one who appreciates nature in all her oddity.

From Insecta Inspecta World
Breeding season is in the summer in temperate areas. After mating, the female will lay groups of 12-400 eggs in the autumn, in a "frothy" liquid called an "ootheca", that turns into a hard protective shell. This is how these insects survive during the wintertime. Small mantids emerge in the spring. Often, their first meal is a sibling. Young mantids or nymphs, also eat leafhoppers, aphids and small flies. Young mantids will shed many times before it is full grown. It takes an entire summer or growing season for mantids to mature to adulthood. One generation develops each season. Many species of mantids resemble ants when they are small, but as they go through a series of molts, they begin to look more like adult mantids......

I hope there's a whole army of these little critters in my yard, I can use all the help I can get with plant eating insects

Send one over to my garden:) There are plenty of aphids to munch on:)

Wow! I didn't realize they were that small as babies until the thumb picture. I've only seen a full grown one once.

As a completely unrelated comment, you have an amazing camera to capture that so clearly.

Aw--he's just a baby! How wonderful that he did not get squshed!

Great shots! That thumb really puts the size of PM in perspective..he/she will grow up to be a voracious bug eater..:)..lucky it didn't try to devour Gary's thumb! LOL..

Hey! You are quite the photographer..coulda used you at my nephew's graduation!

Oh how tiny and cute. Great photos.

Awesome photos. I really love the one of your husband's photo to show us how tiny the mantis was.

Great picture Kathy. I've never seen a baby praying mantis before. How adorable.

Funny you should mention the PM not devouring Gary's thumb Sheila, this little critter was very observant and seemed to be watching us at times...and those front legs were batting away...as if to ward us off....

To me it's a miracle that Gary saw it..with coloring that is almost translucent and such a tiny creature... very quick thinking of gary to put his thumb in one of the pictures.

The camera I use is an older Nikon...a Coolpix 5400 Adelaide...I was using the macro setting which has a little screen that shows the shot before you take it....which can be a pain in the neck when the sun is shining because the sun washes out the screen....I'm so glad that some of the pictures turned out so I could share them

What a magnificent shot! Wow. It is so tiny compared to his finger!

Here in Georgia they can get very big - I've seen them up to five inches long! From the back of my mind I seem to remember that they are related to the cockroach!

How is that for an example of yin yang?

Noooooooo...not the dreaded cockroach !

I gotta google that and see for sure...one momento...from Wings in Motion.......Strangely, scientists and entomologists agree that the mantis is closely related to the cockroach. Like their relatives the cockroaches, mantids undergo simple or incomplete metamorphosis. There is no caterpillar or maggot stage. The young go through several nymphal stages in which they resemble miniature wingless adults.

Oh well, such is nature : - D

Hey everyone has that icky cousin, so why not the PM be cousin to the icky cockroach? I, too, have seen them up to 5-6 inches in warm areas. This little guy is adorable. Love the perspective with the shot of Gary's thumb.

Lucky you to have such a friendly little carnivore in your garden.

Loved that little cutie, and yes, that thumb in the photo made all the difference for realizing size, and yes, I am falling madly in love with this "Gary" man who is the hero of tiny insects everywhere and thoughtful enough to send you scurrying off for your camera while he safely escorts the little guy [or gal] to his stapler. Wow. Yes. You live in a world blessed by small and large, K -- happy for you, and them.

You made me laugh Wanda, I do indeed have an icky cousin...I'm keeping watch for the rest of the brood, hoping we have a whole yard full of them. With this one being so tiny you would think the rest of them can't be so far away...one can hope

I agree David, they do look alien, let's hope that if they do come in extra large that it's somewhere on a deserted island as I think we would be a perfect dinner for them

Lynn... thank you....what a lovely thought to convey.... it's not every man or human that would care about the tiniest creatures among us, btw Gary is 6'4" - a gentle giant and we both love the beauty of nature.

Pssssst...you know what Gary just told me....that was not his thumb....it was his index finger...which means ....the tiny bug is even tinier....: - D

oo wow, what a fantastic capture... i love these nature shots... Blessings...

Wonderful catch, Katherine! Saving the planet, one mantis at a time. . . .

I saw a tiny mantis the next day around the same area again...I'm hoping it has lots of siblings hanging around to help fight against leaf eating pests.

Isn't he a cutie! I love mantises. Except when they are on me. One year I used to water our trees wearing a blue shirt with red flowers, and the mantises mistook me for foliage. They'd sit on my shoulder and stare at me. Spooked the heck out of me!

hahahaha Pat, they do have a way about them that makes you think they're watching your every move. I don't think I'd be too freaked out if a PM got on me, but just let a roach get within sight and I'm running away like a little girl. : - )

Oh he was tiny! Great pictures.

What a neat story and grouping of pictures of that tiny little critter!!! I think they're a protected insect, aren't they? I really enjoyed this! BTW, I'd run away like a little girl from a roach as well! We had a HUGE centipede in our kitchen last week, but I was on the phone, and couldn't do anything about it, not that I would have anyway. It really creeped me out big time! Ugh!! First time for that!

GROSS....a centipede...that would of been a moment of terror for me...a "HONEY" get this thing out of here! I have heard that PM's are protected, but can't say for sure.

Glad you enjoyed the pictures Sheila and Nancy.

What wonderful photos