The first time I went out on this day, I was successfully tricked into thinking the wind had just blown a dried leaf into the corner of my doorway, but when I came back in, I realized it was a cool mantis. I've always loved mantids, but almost never saw them in suburban Orange County growing up (wilder areas of the county probably had them). I've seen a few of these guys in Irvine recently, though.
Just a few weeks before this one, I'd found another apparent member of its species on the ground in front of my next-door neighbors' doorway, with its head missing and a line of ants streaming into and out of its neck hole. Sadly, I found the mantis pictured here dead (at the beginning of my entranceway) a few days after these were shot as well. Not sure if my entranceway is an attractive shelter for mantids on their last legs to go to die, or what. Oh well, I certainly enjoy their company while they're around (had fun with this one getting it to turn its head, tracking all my movements — a level of interaction few arthropods show), and don't mind carting their carcasses off once they kick the bucket.
Photos taken with my old iPhone 3GS.
Simply click on any file size figure to get a page with just that image, including its caption (if any), a toggle for additional info (e.g. EXIF data), and arrow buttons that will take you to the previous and next images. Clicking on the "File" column heading will collapse the table below to exclude the inline thumbnails. Clicking on one of the other column headings will get you a page containing ALL the images in that particular file format and size, with their captions (if any) printed alongside them.
| File | .jpg: Thumbnail | .jpg: Normal | .jpg: Large | .jpg: Full-Size | |
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doorway_mantis-1 | 1.3 kB (60 x 80) |
41.8 kB (480 x 640) |
151.8 kB (720 x 960) |
1.1 MB (1536 x 2048) |
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doorway_mantis-2 | 1.7 kB (60 x 80) |
42.4 kB (480 x 640) |
141.3 kB (720 x 960) |
1.0 MB (1536 x 2048) |
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doorway_mantis-3 | 1.6 kB (60 x 80) |
41.0 kB (480 x 640) |
138.1 kB (720 x 960) |
1.0 MB (1536 x 2048) |
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doorway_mantis-4 | 1.6 kB (60 x 80) |
41.1 kB (480 x 640) |
139.3 kB (720 x 960) |
1.0 MB (1536 x 2048) |
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doorway_mantis-5 | 1.4 kB (60 x 80) |
44.3 kB (480 x 640) |
143.8 kB (720 x 960) |
1.1 MB (1536 x 2048) |
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doorway_mantis-6 | 1.4 kB (60 x 80) |
44.3 kB (480 x 640) |
144.6 kB (720 x 960) |
1.1 MB (1536 x 2048) |
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