Preying Praying Mantis

Big compound eyes and sharp spines on forelegs

Basking in the morning sun; legs outstretched to snatch prey

Praying Mantis Looking like a cosmos leaf and watching the camera

Monarch for breakfast

European Praying Mantis consuming Monarch Butterfly

Where is it?  Some days I spot the European Praying Mantis in the garden and other days I don’t.  Its camouflage is so excellent that I may look directly at the mantid,  glance away at a butterfly, look back - and it has vanished!  Of course, it’s still hanging in the same spot, looking like a leaf and a flower stem.  The Praying Mantis needs this disguise to hide from birds such as Blue Jays and Mockingbirds.  But this insect, Mantis religiosa,  is a large and voracious predator.  Consider this: during a Hummingbird Festival, several of my Master Naturalist acquaintances reported hearing a hummingbird squeaking in distress.  When they investigated the source of the fuss, they discovered a Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the clutches of a Praying Mantis.  They confessed that they did intervene, using a pencil to carefully pry the tiny bird from the mantis’s  grip.   Another Master Naturalist friend recounted that as a child she and her sister would feed raw hamburger to mantids on her front screen door.  Interestingly, the next season, Praying Mantises returned to her screen!  In my garden, I have seen the Praying Mantis devour Green Anoles, bugs, moths, and to my great dismay, a Monarch Butterfly.   After that episode, I was emotionally and foolishly considering a “Praying Mantis Relocation Program”.  I wanted to move it away from the Milkweed Patch to a different part of the yard, but first, I would have to find it.  After two days and no sign of the mantid, I had calmed down.  The Praying Mantis is hunting, hidden in the garden.

Blue Dragonfly

The previous "Obelisking Dragonfly" I dubbed a Blue Dasher even  though he/she was brown and yellow. Some of you wondered about that.  With this posting you can see the namesake!  The male Blue Dasher is a beauty, the color of a clear sky.  Some dragonflies spend most of their time flying, while others perch.  Dashers are perchers.  This smart fellow spends his days poised on a branch of my native salvia where the blue blossoms afford him some camouflage.  The little Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennes, like other dragonflies, will eat what it can catch.  I have seen these guys swoop repeatedly through a cloud of gnats - like sharks through a school of little fish.

Monarchs have Arrived - Finally!

Monarch Butterflies are visiting my garden this week.  I was so happy to see the tell-tale holes eaten through the leaves.  Then I spotted this little stripey fellow sunning on his leaf. Usually the babies hide safely beneath the leaves.  An adult monarch stopped buy to sip nectar from my American Basketflower.  One plump caterpillar was crawling up the warm brick wall heading toward the eves, preparing to make a chrysalis.  I hope he fastens on tightly because Hurricane Alex is expected to give us a lot of wind and rain. 

Bodacious Jumping Spider

A white smiling face on velvety black is what I spotted. Then I was stunned by flashes of green from the spider's real face.  Those were not his eight, laser-sharp eyes glinting at me, but his shiny, emerald chelicerae - his jaws!  The metallic-green chelicerae are his weapons. The jaws are tipped with sharp fangs and poison ducts which he uses to immobilize his prey.  Jumping spiders are not dangerous to people, but like anyone, they may bite if handled.  Jumping spiders, (family Salticidae, from Latin, saltus = to jump), do not rest on webs waiting for food to be delivered.  They hunt.  They have amazing, binocular vision - the best eyesight of all spiders - and formidable agility.  For a jumping spider, a web is essential safety equipment.  Before making a dramatic pounce on his prey, he would secure a web line so that he could climb back.  This striking fellow, who was stalking amidst my salvias, is Phidipus audax.  He would court a female by waving his atractive front legs at her and wiggling his abdomen.  Audax is a Latin word meaning bold or audacious.  One of my arachnid books labels him the "Daring Jumping Spider," another dubs him the "Bold Jumping Spider."  I may call him the "Bodacious Jumping Spider."