It wasn’t the X-files that convinced me aliens exist….it was this Chinese Praying Mantis. She’s in the process of cleaning her pedipalps (claws), while perched on flowering Russian Sage. Chinese mantises have largely come to replace the native Carolina mantis that once inhabited much of the US. These powerful insects sometimes catch and kill small birds, such as our beautiful hummingbirds.
Garden and farm tenders, should you need to introduce natural insect control, please specifically choose the Carolina species, instead.
Photographed near Selinsgrove, PA, USA.
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