A reign that rejiggered reality in the antique world,
an engagingly eccentric ruler had youth and beauty
but no disciples, the last
invertebrate pataphysician.
 

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Praying Mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis

New praying mantids are on the way.
 

A spring refresher course in the shadings between
incompatible beasts on either side of spindly limbs.
 

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Praying mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis
Ant | Hymenoptera | Apocrita | Vespoidea | Formicidae

A miniature apocalypse waits, big enough
to command, too small to oppress,
a mantis nymph on a vast and fecund mountaintop
glances to the left and then blinks.
 

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Praying Mantis | Tenodera aridifolia sinensis

A young praying mantis, hours old,
impersonates a gargoyle near the roof
of the microwilderness.
 
A small demon, waiting for instructions.
 

After the rain, an aloof mantis nymph
conducts the little restless midges.
 

Just found out my Wild Light blog has been included in the list
“50 Amazing Nature Photography Bloggers”,
a nice resource for some fine wildlife photography.
 

Here’s a young bandit hours after birth,
a praying mantis nymph caught up in some abandoned
spider webbing searching for tiny prey.
 

Less than a breath, almost nothing at all,
a young praying mantis is a ghostly insinuation
in the green world.
 

Minutes old and ready to hit the ground stalking, a tiny, skeeter-sized praying mantis surveys the leafy streets of a lush new world.
 

A patient praying mantis waits silently, a tiny backyard ghost, a new-born, skeeter-size bundle of hunger.

        Still mantis central here, I hope some will survive the perils of my backyard microwilderness.

        A mantis from last year crosses a dew-covered bridge below.

       My backyard microwilderness has been overrun by tiny praying mantids, hatching this week from their egg cases.

       Below is a mantis from last spring.