Photo Friday- Missy the Mantis

With four boys in the house bugs are always a topic of conversation.  So much in fact that one of my boys wants to be a 'bug expert'.  Most of the time I don't get involved in those conversations.  Bugs aren't really my thing.  Until this time.  Almost two weeks ago we noticed a praying mantis on one of the flowering plants by our front door.  We checked it out and I took a couple of pictures thinking it would be gone the next day.  I was wrong.  Like I said, it's been almost two weeks and it is still there!  From the little information I have looked up on the Internet I am thinking that this mantis is a female (which we have named Missy) and we are hoping that she will be laying an egg sac in our plant.  Everyday we go and see where she is.  Some days she is really hiding and others she is out in the open.  We have watched her catch a fly and I even watched her devour a grasshopper.  I go and check on her a few times a day and of course I have taken some pictures.  I'm a little obsessed with her.  If you don't like blood and guts leave my blog now.  I'm warning you that some of these photos are a little graphic.  Enjoy!

I believe she was cleaning herself after eating a fly. 

My favorite photo of our 'pet'. 

This is the really graphic one.  That is a grasshopper that she is eating.  She decapitates it. 

Still eating the grasshopper.  Notice the missing head. 

I'm pretty sure that is one of the grasshopper's wings in Missy's right arm.

In case you ever wanted to know, the inside of a grasshopper is orange.