Mantis Diary 13

For the last three months I have spent a considerable time searching for my favourite insect with very limited results. Today my son inadvertently walked through a low slung spider web and then discovered that he had a praying mantis dangling from his pants leg. It was hopelessly tangled in fine, sticky webbing. I removed the worst of it, but then realised the mantis was paralysed. No doubt the spider had bitten it to keep it fresh for later. It was a smart spider. The mantis’s powerful jaw-like forelegs were manacled together and somehow attached to its head.

This made me sad. The season started with so much promise, with scores of nymphs around the garden, but just one bad weather event all but wiped them out.

The only good to come out of this was that I got to photograph the underneath of the mantis, not something that can be done usually.