Curious Mantis

He wanted to forage and ended up getting caught outside his burrow

Is this Odontodactylus scyallarus? The tan carapace is throwing me off...

HI Matt,

What a wonderful image its brilliant, how long did it take to get it??

Andy

hey matt, nice capture.

i believe you are right on the species. i have seen them with green carapice (philippines), red carapice (yap) and now your tan one...

i think just regional variation

Matt,

Great image, love how the eyes are focused and the iridescence on the, uh, claw thingy. The color looks a bit odd below the carpace, the red "fringe" (?) around the indigo tips of the plates. What's going on there?

Super!

Chris

Very nice, Matt.

Good use of depth of field and off centre focus. Colourful too.

Alex

nice capture, Matt

Thanks guys

Andy - It was a good 25 minutes of waiting and watching before he came out of his burrow, and then another 10 minutes before he was ok foraging/posing. So, 35 minutes total...they can be pretty shy sometimes

Chris - It's a fringe of red 'hairs' (?), the same as around the green/black 'flap' (scientific terms, of course ) near the club appendage - they're just out of focus.