Foiled!

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I caught sight of this praying mantis because she was rocking, a sure sign of the intention to move. There was a fly about 20cm from her. Mantises usually wait in one place for whatever comes in grabbing range, but it was obvious she couldn’t wait. I watched as she very slowly made her way flyward. The fly was very active. It kept taking off to fly a quick circle and landing again. As the mantis crept closer she had trouble crossing gaps between the leaves (first shot), I was trying to follow the action without moving. Then, when the mantis was in grabbing range the fly suddenly did its quick circle thing and landed on the mantis's back. She didn’t move. All her grabbing apparatus is in the front. In the local vernacular the correct word for this sort of situation is “bugger.”