Generations of Friends

So last summer I had a little visitor to my garden. She hung around for a few days looking, I hoped, for a place to settle down and raise a family. Once she disappeared however, I didn't see any egg-ish gifts left behind. Even if she had, according to my sources, her eggs would be there all winter and hatch in spring.

Fast forward to two days ago. As I sat and stared at my pathetic garden, as I often do, I noticed a little mantid nymph sitting on my bean stalk. He was not much bigger than the letter "I" that you see right here.

I am guessing my garden is was just a stopover as he/she tries to strike out on his own, as I found no evidence of his brothers and sisters as seen in these photos.

It's amazing to think that he will one day be big enough to catch and eat a bird.

As of this morning, he appears to have moved on, and I don't know if I will find any of his siblings in the coming days, but I can take comfort in the fact that some of his cousins will probably be showing up in our kitchen soon. (from a post I made November 8, 2005)

I learn something new every day. I had no idea that my new friend (now seemingly gone for good) is actually related to my old friends, the cockroach. Of course, we as humans tend to like the praying mantis much more than a cockroach, or most other bugs for that matter. One reason is that we identify with them simply because they, unlike most other insects, can turn their head -this makes them appear more "human" to us. My how simplistic the human thought process is!

Via a Science Friday interview with Piotr Naskrecki about his book The Smaller Majority (newly added to my "really, really wanna read and hope I get to it list").

Ninety percent of the known species on Earth are smaller than a human finger. We'll talk with zoologist and photographer Piotr Naskrecki about the Smaller Majority the title -- and subject -- of his new book.