Nature Study

This is the cast skin of the praying mantis nymph that lives on the Stevia in the greenhouse. I had thought the nymph was eaten by a spider because it disappeared  at the same time as the spider appeared. However, the nymph had cast its baby skin with the black stripe and I just couldn’t see it. My joy at seeing it again was tempered by the discovery that it was maimed- one antenna gone and its right middle leg broken off at half way. I came across the skin when I turned a leaf over, and found that the damage was sustained before the skin was cast. (The big right front leg is obscured in this shot). The right middle leg is clearly shortened. Poor little nymph.

Then I saw some bumblebee behaviour that interested me. A big queen was working the fuchsia flowers and I noticed that while she paused on a flower to suck the nectar her feet were busily scraping the pollen from the anthers and transferring it to her legs. It took her less than 5 seconds at each flower. See extra shot.