Flower mantis

Today was inevitably going to be a repeat, as the other finalist for blip was a rather good bee shot. This image however, fits the theme of the last two days and shows the flower mantis (blipped yesterday) sizing up his lunch (like two days ago).

Once again the mantis beat me with his superior camouflage and I didn't see him until the butterfly had left. I was left wondering if I had actually captured him at all, as I powered through about twenty shots of the butterfly. The butterfly was never going to make blip and was purely for my own collection.

This time you can see the mantis in its natural hunting grounds, a flower head, were it blends in so perfectly. Some of you may have been thinking that there was no way the mantis would take on a huge butterfly, well you are quite mistaken, as I tested the idea when I kept a mantis many years ago.

I was disappointed yesterday that I hadn't blipped an image of the mantis on the flower head, but I did not discover that it was actually called a flower mantis until I did my research at the internet café. Well, that has now been corrected.

Dave