Insect Picture of the Day

Click for larger version

Here’s another image from Andrew Lin, of a praying mantis on his screen. He says she’s on 2mm screen mesh, and my best eyeballing puts her at about 11cm (4.5″) long. I don’t have a date for this image but it came in a batch of images taken in October 2006 in Sacramento, CA, USA.

As you can see, this lovely lady is just starting to “show”. October is the end of mantis season in Utah; I can easily see the mating and laying season extending into November in California.

Andrew says that this is the correct rotation for this image; she was content to stay head-down while he photographed her. Interesting–look at the larger image, and you can see her tarsi folded up so that her feet rest against her femurs, making a little triangle structure out of her legs to rest on in that pose.