6 posts tagged “praying mantis”
Kind of a scare this morning over Waldo the praying mantis... sitting out on the balcony, I was looking for him and couldn't find him among the many sunflower stalks in the pot he usually favors... I figured he was probably hiding so well I just couldn't see him... Moopy was out and walking around, and suddenly I noticed something hurrying between her steps... it was Waldo, walking around... well, Moopy's one foot kind of hit him, and he got scared so he ran to the edge of the balcony, and when I tried to get him back he fell... well, he survived the one story drop to the parking lot below, but then another fear arose - birds... some of the neighbors throw bread over for the birds, and the parking lot is usually very busy with them... I was afraid Waldo was gonna be snatched up for breakfast by some pesky sparrow... so I grabbed a plastic cup and lid and hurried down to retrieve him... got him back among his sunflowers safe and sound, and hopefully he'll stay put and not do any more roaming for a while...
It's a beautiful Sunday here in New Jersey... brilliant sunshine, deep blue skies and low humidity... makes it nice to sit outside... probably going to be a beautiful starlit night too... have to remember to look for the crescent Moon that should be visible... I believe I read Venus and Mercury are going to be in the West too after sunset... I'll have to recheck my sources to be sure...
Almost done reading Diane Ackerman's "The Moon by Whalelight", and I'm glad I reread it, it's a wonderful book... it's a collection of essays from her time spent travelling among whales, penguins, crocodiles and bats... a lot of good conversations with the people who study and work to conserve these animals, and a lot of surprising stories and facts about them too... it ranks high up there with her "Natural History of the Senses" too... next up to read, I'm not sure... might reread some Ray Bradbury short stories, tho I'm still in a Dan Simmons mood after reading "Lovedeath" last month... might pull out his "Hyperion" book for a reread too...
Here's a camera-phone pic I took this afternoon of the balcony I always write about... the pot with the big tall stalks right in the middle there is all sunflowers and that is where Waldo the praying mantis has made his home... he could be smiling for the pic, I'm not sure... hard to tell at this angle...
In the jungle, the sunflower jungle, the mantis slept all night... and he's still hanging around... my friend Sherrie suggested I name him after a prophet, given the origin of the name, "mantis"... but I'm actually taking to calling him/her/it, Waldo... since trying to find him is like one of those "Where's Waldo?" books you used to see around a lot... he's been the main attraction of the balcony this summer tho... no sign of the hummingbird I used to see a few years back, but then again I have no red flowers out there this year, and I didn't put the hummingbird feeder up this year cause the nectar attracts so many wasps... only thing the sunflowers attract are goldfinches which will pick all the seeds in one sitting, and those big black-and-yellow bumble bees...
Finished reading Dan Simmon's "Lovedeath", which is a collection of 5 novellas, and I loved it... to death... the first novella was a bit lite to me, but each one got better than the one before it, so by the end I was sad to see the book finish... I've loved most of Mr. Simmons' books, only his Ilium duo of books kind of lost me... not sure what I'm reading next, tho I pulled out an old Diane Ackerman book called "The Moon by Whalelight", read it once about 12 years ago, might read it again...
... other than that, it's been a quiet weekend of reading, writing and Law and Order... did finally see the movie "The Reaping", which I really enjoyed...
Interesting evening with the praying mantis... late this afternoon, after taking Moopy out for a walk, I sat on the balcony with a few books to read til the sun went down... looked all over the sunflowers but couldn't find the mantis anywhere, so I was worrying, thinking maybe some bird came along and got him... later, about 10pm, I went out there again with my iPod to listen to some music for a bit... still looking, and still no mantis... finally, I get ready to go back inside, and there he is, on the balcony screen door... on the INSIDE of the apartment... God only knows how long he was inside, or how he got inside in the first place... so I got a plastic cup and napkin, and captured him gently and took him back outside to his sunflowers... who knows, maybe he had a good laugh watching we look for him all evening...
Well, the praying mantis was still there this evening, sitting patiently hoping for an evening meal to come his way among the sunflower stems... so, I did a little research about them, and here's a few facts to bore you with...
Did you know... there are approximately 2000 specied of mantises in tropical and temperate regions... many can turn their heads up to 300 degrees to enable them to see without moving their bodies... most are diurnal (daytime) hunters, feasting on small bugs, rodents, lizards and snakes... when flying at dusk or night, they can sense the echolocation cries of bats, sensing when a bat has them in their sights for a meal, and they can then spiral down to the ground for safety... it's uncertain if the behaviour of the females eating the males during mating is true or not - it's often seen in laboratory settings, but not in nature; so, is it a reaction to the presence of humans?... the name "mantis" is from the Greek word for prophet or fortune teller... many can change color to blend into their surroundings, in fact, some species in Africa can turn black to match the color of burned brush and trees after a wildfire passes thru... and while mantises can bite, they are not poisonous and pose no threat to humans...
... now I just need to name mine!
The past two months there's been this praying mantis living among the plants on the balcony... it was a baby when I first saw it, a little brown thing wobbling among the alyssum... it goes missing for a week or so at a time, and then suddenly I'll be sitting out there or watering the plants and it'll turn up... and that's just what happened last night, about 11pm, I went out there with my iPod to listen to some music, and the tall sunflower pot was right in front of me... as I was lost in my music, I studied the sunflowers and noticed one of the leaves seemed to have an extra stem, which in fact turned out to be the mantis... hanging upside down from one of the plant's big, wide leaves, hunting in the dark for a late night snack... it had grown a lot too, it's now almost as long as my little finger, tho still brown in color... I only hope it survived the night, because by midnight a storm had moved in with gusty winds and heavy rains... the sunflowers were whipping around a lot, and I only fear the mantis got shaken off and fell from the balcony... hope not... you know I'll be keeping my eye out for it.
