Vacation Time - Day 4 Part 2

At this time of year so many trees and plants are flowering. Some are dull and others have brilliant colors. Wherever you look, the bees are busy collecting pollen.
Although this Agama lizard is a completely different color, it sits so still that one can walk right by without noticing it.

The Fever Tree has spread its roots along the top of the ground and because of its color, it somehow looked pre-historic to me. Please click on the link to read the story of how it got its name.

While photographing the roots above, I noticed a large ant scurrying along one of them and bent down to take a closer look as I had not seen one so large before. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be something else!!

It is a baby Flower mantis (family Hymenopodidae). In the picture above he is on my thumb nail to give you some idea of its size. When larger, they mimic flowers and are very beautiful but extremely difficult to find.

Most mantids of this species have some kind of raised section in the middle of their heads and this one reminded me of a unicorn.

It has very unusual eyes don’t you think? All mantids are carnivorous and eat all kinds of insects, spiders etc which they can easily grip with their spiny forelegs.

The Yellowbilled Hornbill is very common here. A large bird maybe twice the size of a dove. They are also insect eaters and hop along the ground all day looking for food. Their nests are in hollow trees which the male closes with mud to leave just a narrow slit. The female moults completely inside and has to rely on being fed through it by the male.