Just as well that I went for an early walk this morning as the wind came up a bit later and I would not have been able to take even one picture. I went around the yard and at the small garden near the pool, there is huge cycad growing. I started peering under the leaves to see if I could find anything, maybe spiders....... This is a juvenile Bark Mantis (Tarachodes) and if it was not for his legs, I would have missed him.
It is of medium size and move about the trunks of trees in search of caterpillars and other prey.
It is fairly flattish to resemble bark. His total body length is about 1 1/2 inches and what was interesting to me, besides the way he blended in, was the fact that he does not have a long neck as most mantids do.
He has incredible eyes and as he was starting to get restless, I dashed to the house to find something to catch him in so that I could get better pics of him as it was rather dark under the tree and cycad.
No comments:
Post a Comment