Praying, preying, or peering?
This female praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata, selects a patch of red Lantana to watch for pollinators.
Her spiked forelegs resting, her eyes always watching but her body as still as a stone, she makes an incredible predator portrait. That triangular head, those bulging eyes, that pencil-thin "neck."
Her common names included "bordered mantis, bosque mantis, Arizona mantis, and New Mexico praying mantis." This species is native to North America and considered most prevalent in the southwestern United States.
What's for breakfast? A bee, a butterfly, a syrphid fly?
What's for lunch? What's for dinner? What's for snacks?
She need not worry. She's a great ambush predator.
A limbata in the Lantana.
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