Finally..

Of all insects, together with dragon- and damselflies, the praying mantis is my favorite. I have been looking for it the past few weeks, and finally this morning I found my first tiny tiny wingless early molt mantis example of the season. If it wasn't for the fact that the thermometer is really boiling these days I would have stayed on for hours to watch it, hoping to see it catch an insect. I could write a lot about their life cycle and hunting skills but I'll rather just put down a few words about their eyes. The mantis has a head that can be rotated and so they can easily follow you with the head. They have also got large compound eyes and when you look straight into them it seems they've got pupils, a tiny black dot that moves across the eye, as if it was following you. This is the so-called pseudopupils, that occur because the ommatidia (a cluster of photoreceptor cells) seen "head-on" (along their optical axis) absorb the incident light, while those to one side reflect it. A fascinating illusion!

I have added more photos in the extra that show the camouflage skill