Friday 12 March 2010

Mantis Memories


The kids spotted this little creature on the path, a bit wobbly on his legs, heading for the camouflage of the grass. After a quick photo with my phat lens I decided I needed my other lens to capture him eyeball to eyeball. The kids kept tabs on him while I changed to the only other option I had. Here's where a macro lens would have come in handy, eh? As I looked into this critter's eyes I thought of Jilly and the gorgeous photos she produces - I bet she has a macro lens!!!

I also remembered that when I was a baby in Aden, my Dad and Mum had a 'pet' praying mantis. We have a photo of it. The story goes that he ate sugar and cornflakes at the breakfast table. One day, after he had grown wings, he flew up into the fan and fatally injured himself. :(

When I was in Yr 11 or 12 I entered the biology classroom and saw little things set up around the room. One thing was a container (can't remember what) with a praying mantis in it. A boy from our class decided to have a poke and prod and the praying mantis clamped his little leaf-eating jaw on the padded part of said boy's finger. Said boy yelped and flung his hand to get rid of the mantis - successfully. The mantis was thrown out of the window. The biology teacher was NOT impressed ( or in Soph's words, she was unpressed.)

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