... for my closeup...

Praying Mantis crawling from behind a bench.

It's a spectacular insect... they move slow, mimicking the branch of a tree, they're vicious (notice the spikes on the front legs, with which they capture prey, mesmerising them first with amazing colorful and reflective bands inside those legs - sadly I couldn't capture those colors... she didn't open her front legs), the female devours the male when copulating, already during the act, then watch that rotating head with those enormous eyes... a very scary predator when you're an innocent insect. You mostly see them in green and they're a lot smaller then you might think from this photo.

More photos of this creature in the album 'Praying Mantis' on the main page...

Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8 IS

Malaysia - 6 July 2010