Nature's Place

If you go down to the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise. No bears here but nature fascinates anyway. While I was watching a robber fly do its thing, killing and eating with aplomb, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to look she saw me and stopped dead in her tracks.

So many creatures have as their first defence to be still. No surprise since it is movement that usually gives them away. A stick insect, looks like, probably related to the mantis I often see around the house and forest, climbing the trunk of a tree about six feet from me. I only saw her because of the light background, otherwise she is just another brown stick at the edge of the forest.

She is about ten inches long and he, on her back, is much smaller at about half that. They are in the process of mating, to make more of themselves. That’s nature, always reproducing, always dying, to live again. I have heard the female mantis consumes its mate head first after mating, to feed the seed of the young he has just planted no doubt. Other females of their species do the same.

Man and woman, hmmm! I wonder. But these insects produce many offspring that take care of themselves very soon after birth, one for many self sufficient is good trade. One adult who can mostly take care of himself is not good trade for one baby that takes years to raise. Better to let him live if only for the money he ‘might’ contribute. Or the loving he might do.

I reckon men are safe, for now.
 
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge