I'm Ready...
... for my closeup...
Praying Mantis crawling from behind a bench.
It's a spectacular insect... they move slow, mimicking the branch of a tree, they're vicious (notice the spikes on the front legs, with which they capture prey, mesmerising them first with amazing colorful and reflective bands inside those legs - sadly I couldn't capture those colors... she didn't open her front legs), the female devours the male when copulating, already during the act, then watch that rotating head with those enormous eyes... a very scary predator when you're an innocent insect. You mostly see them in green and they're a lot smaller then you might think from this photo.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8 IS
Malaysia - 2010
I'm Ready...
... for my closeup...
Praying Mantis crawling from behind a bench.
It's a spectacular insect... they move slow, mimicking the branch of a tree, they're vicious (notice the spikes on the front legs, with which they capture prey, mesmerising them first with amazing colorful and reflective bands inside those legs - sadly I couldn't capture those colors... she didn't open her front legs), the female devours the male when copulating, already during the act, then watch that rotating head with those enormous eyes... a very scary predator when you're an innocent insect. You mostly see them in green and they're a lot smaller then you might think from this photo.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8 IS
Malaysia - 2010
Praying Mantis crawling from behind a bench.
It's a spectacular insect... they move slow, mimicking the branch of a tree, they're vicious (notice the spikes on the front legs, with which they capture prey, mesmerising them first with amazing colorful and reflective bands inside those legs - sadly I couldn't capture those colors... she didn't open her front legs), the female devours the male when copulating, already during the act, then watch that rotating head with those enormous eyes... a very scary predator when you're an innocent insect. You mostly see them in green and they're a lot smaller then you might think from this photo.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8 IS
Malaysia - 2010