Predators abound. Here, the cutest one: a mantis nymph (juvenile), Ameles spallanzania, as beautiful and gracious as it hops about the drying twigs of grass as it is deadly to any little creature within its sights.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/309793118

8/n
#iNaturalist #Mantodea #mantis #entomology

@markmccaughrean

👏 Well done!

I've been rescuing bugs left and right as a way of illustrating how tame and harmless they are to us (most of them, and not in Australia 😆 ).

The last one: this adult praying mantis (about 10 cm) found crawling on a friend's shirt, to the dismay and screaming of "kill it! kill it!" of his wife next to him. I held it on my hand until she realised it was not going to harm me, or her, or anyone, and then let it hop onto a nearby twig. "But aren't you afraid it will bite you? – Ma'am, I'm not a fly. This is the best natural cleaner of house bugs you can get, even available for order from an internet shop."
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/306727909
#iNaturalist #Mantodea #mantis #entomology