It's 6 a.m.
Do you know where your praying mantids are?
Well, yes. Two of them.
Just before dawn broke, we walked around our pollinator (and prey) garden and spotted a pencil-thin male mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, silhouetted on the milkweed. And then, directly above him, nearly hidden--another silhouette. Could it be? It was: a fine-looking gravid female mantis.
They clung silently to the milkweed, neither moving but fully aware of the other's presence.
Then the sun blushed through the trees and sprayed them with light.
The female began advancing toward the male. The male kept his distance (and his head).
Then what happened? Did they have a close encounter? Did the male lose his head?
No one knows. Sigh. An obligation beckoned and off we went to fulfill it. Sometimes life gets in the way of a good story ending or a bad story ending, depending on your point of view.
However, we do know this: The next day, the female was still there, but the male was not.
He may have lost his head.
We do know that a honey bee lost hers.
When you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you...Rudyard Kipling
Attached Images:
Early morning silhouette: Find the two praying mantids. There's a female and a male clinging to the milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
As morning dawns, a female praying mantis,Stagmomantis limbata, checks out what's below. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A male praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, clings to a milkweed stem. Just above him: a female, not seen in this photo. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hmm...where are you, my little buddy? The female praying mantis looks around for the male. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The next morning, the female praying mantis ambushes and eats a honey bee. The male? Nowhere in sight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)