Morning #Mantis couple from my summer #Philly #garden. 🌞 #bugsky #MacroMonday #macro #photography #nature #eastcoastkin #mantisMonday #bugSky

"This Orchid mantis is at its L-2 stage, having only molted once. She is super tiny at this stage of her life. She'll be much larger as an adult."

#ColorADay
#PinkMon
#mantismonday

@joegarrity.bsky.social

Morning wet #Mantis in my #Philly #garden. 🌦️
#bugsky #MacroMonday #macro #photography #nature #eastcoastkin #mantisMonday #bugSky

Close up of light green mantis head and claw at the top, mouth covered by a tawny honey bee victim, wings hanging vertical to the bottom of the photo, black background (created in camera).

Female Carolina mantis w/honey bee
10-2-25 on Chicago’s 606 walkway

(Stagmomantis carolina)
📸 Olympus 90mm ISO200 f18 1/250

More photos below 👇

#macroMonday #eastcoastkin #mantisMonday #bugSky #native #insects #macrophotography #macro #photography #nature #art #chicago #BloomingdaleTrail #resist

A green praying mantis walking on a stick through some fuzzy sideritis plants. Keeping the tea pest-free. 🍵

A #MantisMonday stroll though some #sideritis.🪲🌿🌱

Do we have a #MantisMonday?

If not it starts RIGHT NOW!

My daughter and her #frontyardgarden #preyingmantis for #MantisMonday

A sculptured mantis pin. (I think it's some kind of resin or plastic.) The mantis is a bright spring green color, and it is posed on a background of darker green leaves or possible grass. The mantis has a little smile that I added. I also added the antennas, because originally, it didn't have any.

Making time for #MantisMonday this week! Many years ago, my sister-in-law gave me a nice little (maybe 2") refrigerator magnet that I repainted, replaced the magnet on the back with a pin, and turned it into a brooch. I still wear it, often on a hat.

A light jade-green mantis against a dark shaded background. The sun is also shining in such a way that you can almost see through parts of her legs and body. She is standing upright on her 4 rear legs, and she has her claws folded up almost to her face. Likewise, her abdomen is folded straight up behind her. She's looking straight at the camera. And she appears to be smiling. Like if the Mona Lisa were a mantis, this is what her smile might look like.

This is a close up of the same mantis. It's a little blurry, but it does show how wide her head and face are. She looks a little less like the Mona Lisa in this view, and maybe a little more like something from Area 51.

Happy #MantisMonday. I haven't raised a lot of non-native mantids, but back in 2007, I tried my hand at a few Cilnea humeralis, AKA the wide arm Mantis. Mantids in general are photogenic, but this girl loved to strike a pose. Also, I think the common name could have also been wide HEAD mantis.

This is the top shelf of the baker’s rack on my front porch. On the right is a dinner plate sized decorative plaque with a large mantis in the center, surrounded by a circular border of ivy. It’s done in bas-relief. It’s got a faded green finish that looks like it was meant to appear old even when it was new, and I have no idea how old it was when I got it about 10 years ago. Meanwhile, on the left, the little doves are looking good, and I’m a little surprised they haven’t left the nest yet. There are 2 of them, grayish brown with beady eyes, in their nest atop a tacky plastic flowerpot.

I thought I’d just give a quick update on my front porch doves, while simultaneously posting a gratuitous photo for #MantisMonday. As you may have noticed last week, I have a praying mantis yard-art plaque that lives on my porch. I got it years ago at a flea market or some such.

A delicate decoration made of wire and cutout pieces of metal. It shows a vine with leaves, flowers and tendrils, and a praying mantis appearing to be climbing up onto a flower. The whole piece was originally spray-painted black. 2 little grommet thingies at the top allow it to be hung up for display.

Same piece, maybe 20 years later, give or take. I painted it a coppery metallic brown, and added splashes of faux verdigris (sorta like rust, only it’s turquoise. Think of the Statue of Liberty) I also removed the grommets and turned the whole thing upside down, so the mantis is now climbing down, and attached it to a board that had been painted beige-ish to match the wall. And THAT whole thing is attached to and hiding the little bell and wiring stuff for the doorbell.

So here’s a twofer (sort of) for #MantisMonday:
I bought this graceful but flimsy metal decorative piece at a swap meet many years ago. Then, more recently (but still over 10 years ago) I gave it a faux verdigris finish and mounted it on the little box that covers the workings of my doorbell.

Virgil the praying mantis, posing on a bouquet of daisies. He is big, about 5" long, and mostly brown, except for green eyes and a stripe of pale green running the length of his folded wings.

Please keep posting bugs when you can manage. I've been struggling with this issue too. Everybody needs bugs in their timeline, whether they know it or not. So I will lend you a #MantisMonday photo from my archives. We're in this together.

Virgil the praying mantis, from 1979

A digitally altered vintage Valentine card, starring a handsome green mantis. He’s engaging the attention of a little brown and yellow bug. It could be an earwig, or maybe some kind of beetle larva. We may never know, but it doesn’t matter. These 2 friendly bugs are surrounded by red hearts of various sizes and some orange and yellow flowers befitting a bright and cheery sentiment that reads,” Can we have a TOWN HALL? I promise I won’t BITE YOUR HEAD OFF!

I started doing #MantisMonday last month, then got a little sidetracked by…stuff. But here’s the intersection of insects and political engagement: I made a Valentine card for @congresstran.bsky.social.
It has a mantis on it, and today it’s doing double duty.
#ValentinesForDemocracy

Here are 3 different images of a praying mantis. The one on the left is a photograph of a dark green mantis in a pose that suggests he's surprised or is about to strike, or maybe both. The center is a mostly green drawing of a somewhat forlorn looking mantis who appears to be kneeling in prayer. In fact, his front legs look like human hands pressed together and pointing upward, as if in prayer. The mantis on the right is just a basic, generally accurate drawing of a green mantis, such as what one might find when looking up the word "mantis" in a dictionary. I'm pretty sure this trio came into my possession one at a time, starting with the one on the left. You can still see the scotch tape all over them. I never dared to try to take the tape off because it would surely have destroyed the pictures. And yes, I do still have these guys in a box somewhere.

So here is my #MantisMonday post from my archive. It's a triple-whammy of oldy-moldies dating back to the early 1970's. They literally went through high school with me. I taped them into my 3 ring binder, and every year, when I got a new binder, I would transplant them into it.

New rule for my #MantisMonday posts:
If it’s Monday, and something with a praying mantis happens to come along in my feed, I’m sharing it.

(I’ll post something of my own later.)

A brown praying mantis, perched on top of her enclosure.

Happy #MantisMonday. I found this sweet old lady on the side of my house last week. She’s still in good shape and on track to make it to the New Year.

With the holidays I completely lost consciousness of what day it was and yesterday I forgot it was #mantismonday but it's okay. I can't think of a better animal to wish you all a Merry Christmas🎄
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IG: jose.alza.dsn
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#macro #closeup #macrophoto #macrophotography #mantis #prayingmantis #wildlife

A bright yellow T shirt with an even brighter green, sparkly praying mantis on the front of it. The mantis is shown sitting on a twig.

Hey! I recently revived my old blog feature: Mantis Monday, and here it is almost Tuesday already, and I'm only just now getting around to posting. But here you have it. A green mantis that I drew with puff paint on a T shirt. #MantisMonday

A green praying mantis made of LEGO. It looks kinda like a robot. It sits upon my antique roll top “fun-desk”.

Hey, it’s #MantisMonday once again, and I’m having a busy morning, but here is a newer piece of “mantis-obelia”.
Last Xmas, my kids bought me a Lego set, of all things. A BUG Lego set.

Years ago, I had a bug blog (more about that later), which had a feature called #MantisMonday, in which I posted photos and artwork with mantids as the subject. I've somehow gotten the notion to revive it, just for the hell of it. So starting today, I'll post something out of my archive every week.

#MantisMonday