Monday, October 1, 2012

A Bug's Life

Alex is taking an honors science class this year.

He has to do a bug collection. (Yay....can you feel my excitement?)

One day, we saw something very large fly into our yard and land on the grass.

We approached it carefully.

It was a praying mantis!!

We were thrilled! What a great addition this would be to the collection.

We put it in plastic sand bucket we had on our patio and stared at it. It stared back with sad, pleading eyes. The thought of having to kill it and stab it with a pin to add it to the collection made me want to cry.

Luckily when we told Alex's teacher about the praying mantis, she said that we could just take a picture of it to include in the collection. I guess praying mantises...manti??? are nice, friendly bugs that are good for the environment...so science teacher gave us permission not to kill him.

I was relieved to hear this. I think the praying mantis was, too. Not sure the other bugs who didn't share such a lucky fate felt the same. :)

Incidentally, after I took these shots, we set Manny free. :)

Anyway, here he....(or she) is. :)




7 comments:

studiocharm said...

I love it! What a great little garden companion! Good luck collecting the rest of the bugs.

My 365 Project said...

I love praying mantises, but they can actually be a little mean themselves :) I was shooting one once and a little butterfly landed nearby and the mantis gobbled it up.... poor butterfly :( and there are videos on youtube of praying mantises eating hummingbirds.... If I find a praying mantis egg cluster I bring it home and put it in my barden though.... love that they catch the bugs.

Nicki said...

I am glad the teacher was compassionate and pardoned the praying mantise. Great shots and good luck to Alex in honors science.

Stacey said...

Amazing shot! I love praying mantise.

Reds said...

Beautiful shots!

Kelly said...

Great macro work. Those don't usually sit still long enough to get a good shot. Also like the DOF

Kelly
mytimepassages.com

Tracie said...

Awesome macros!