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Steve Price
Draper, UT USA
10/16/2022
06:25 pm

Equipment Details:

Google Pixel 4 XL phone

Post-processing Details:

Cropping images, collage in InDesign.

Image Details:

This female Brown Mantis has been in our front yard for a couple of weeks now and I visit her daily if she's still around. As of this morning at 6AM she was sleeping still in the same location as where she was last night around 11PM.

Yesterday's visit was similar to a number of other visits last week. I search around the Valerian plant to see if I can find her and when I do I may lift some flower stems to get a better view. Lately, every visit has been like this one. She quickly maneuvers through the branches to get a closer look at my hand or whatever her insect mind perceives.

Am I friend or foe? Food or fight? I don't know for sure. But I do know this, she seems to recognize me and is eager to climb onto my hand. My life experience with lower vertebrates - reptiles in particular and some invertebrates - insects mostly has demonstrated time and again that when threatened the animal goes into flight or fight mode and when not threatened will remain somewhat calm and mostly they appreciate the free body heat. Lizards love a tummy rub as much a dog does and even more the warm hand.

Cold insects like honeybees, butterflies, mantids, etc also enjoy the instant body heat gain from being carefully handled. I have picked up dozens of honeybees on a cool morning and while cupping them in my hands softly blow a warm breath on them and they quickly react to the warmth and are ready to fly off.

This gravid female Brown Mantis may be reacting accordingly, plus throw in some insectile curiosity if there is such a thing. And lastly, she might really be cued in that I'm the "food guy" who brings those big juicy meals. Yeah, I have fed her a few times. She is about to lay another egg mass if the girth of her abdomen is any clue and I'm pretty sure she has already deposited two egg cases on our home's front stone walls.

And a quick Post Script....If you have read the EarthSky article https://earthsky.org/earth/why-were-prehistoric-insects-so-huge/

Check it out!