Nature's Place

Mantis, preying Mantis. Praying for relief perhaps. From the ants that were harassing it.

It was just hanging on to the tree trunk, jumping this way and that in response to the irritation of ants.

Ants that would be the death of it, if it stayed still for long enough. And so it was, jittery … to say the least.

Always looking for the informative angle, to display the brilliance, of design and form. We don’t ‘just happen’.

And after a while evading the ubiquitous ant she dropped from the tree, to more dangerous ground.

Why didn’t she fly away? I couldn’t see … I picker her up, for her safety and for a few shots of this little wonder.

Co-operative enough … she still wasn’t happy about her situation, however she perceived it. A lingering impression of ‘ant’ perhaps.

But no PTSD here, that I could discern, just the will to go on, as a Mantis, preying …

Preying still … I moved her to different surfaces for a few shots. I couldn’t just leave her to the ants.

And, little beauty, she posed a while … But why didn’t she fly away, I couldn’t tell. It didn’t make sense.

Often a creature will let me take a few shots and be away on the wing, but not lady Mantis, not this day.

A mystery … a beauty, to the eye that sees. Just wouldn’t want to be her next meal, as if that could be.

And one last from the side, maybe she’ll raise herself up for all to see her wonder … but not to be, this time.

When I got home and had a look I could see … her wings are held together with some kind of webbing that has some dark spots in it. Been parasitised perhaps …

That accounted for her inability to fly, her greatest danger. And so I left her, in what I thought a safe place. But on return the ants had found her, and were many. I rescued her again and took her home to die in peace and quiet … in such a dangerous world.