Our New Garden Denizen

Photo courtesy of Fernymoss

Taken 16 August, 2007

Today when Fernymoss came to pick me up from work, he asked "Do you mind if we give my little buddy a ride home?" And with that, he reached into the back seat and pulled out a small wooden box with a screened top ... containing none other than this magnificent Praying Mantis! He had told me last night that a really big mantis had been hanging out all day on one of the plate glass windows at work, disconcerting some of the customers who rummage around in the big containers of clearance merchandise in front of the store. Since he had to close, he looked again when he left and the mantis was gone, otherwise he would have come with him last night. Well, today he was back and he was ready for him ... so he carefully captured the mantis put him in his temporary digs until he got off work.

Once we got home he took him back to that overgrown mess that we usually call the back garden (it's savage garden central this year, alas) and introduced him to his new home. Of course I immediately asked "Why don't you go get some pics of him in case he decides not to stick around?" (though we hope he will as there's probably plenty of food back where he put him). So here he is in his new home amongst the False Indigo and spent Bee Balm blooms in the back corner. We're really hoping he adopts the garden as his new territory and thrives there, as it would really make us happy to know that we have mantises around ... though should he manage to find a mate that would surely be the end of him. So for now, we're just going to keep an eye out for him and hopefully we'll be able to get more shots of him lurking around waiting for dinner. We haven't seen the little one I shot earlier this summer lately, so as long as s/he stays away from the big one we might get lucky enough to have a couple around! We'll keep you posted ... any ideas for naming this one? I have some ideas, but have never had the occasion to name a mantis before!