We were busy picking flowers and taking some photos when we had a visitor. It hopped right up on my arm and it tickled. I realized I had a visitor. My son scooped him up and put him on a flower while I captured him in a few photos.
I was pretty excited until I realized that the challenge was cricket, grasshopper, and katydid….we had ourselves a praying mantis! Oh well, it was fun observing him up close anyway.
Here is his behind….way too funny huh?
He was very good at posing. It made me laugh because every time I tried to take his photo, he would move so his head was facing away from the camera. He would actually look right at me and then turn at the last minute.
One last pose…I think he only had one antennae.
We spent last week in Nevada and it was amazing to us how many grasshoppers there were in the barren landscape. I never did get a single photo of the grasshoppers but we talked about their habits quite a bit as we were out and about.They were rather small grasshoppers in comparison to the one we found near a river in Reno.
I shared this guy last week and since them we have been trying to identify him with no success. He was rather large, probably close to 2 inches long. We think it may be a two-striped grasshopper.
Since we had crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids on our minds, we have slowed down a bit to try to find some to observe. We went out several times to try to hear some crickets but they seem to be smaller in number so the volume is less than usual. It has been a crazy weather year and I am wondering if it is effecting the crickets.
Sometimes I think we might learn more when we have trouble locating our challenge subject. We definitely find more to learn about.
We had a female praying mantis visit us Saturday, I blogged her photos here:
http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2010/09/nature-find-shes-green.html
Great pictures! What a coincindence – we studied praying mantids this week, too! And we were tickled by the way he would turn his head so slowly to look at each of us. And we also saw a very similar grasshopper to that big one in your photo when we were down in Florida this summer – biggest grasshopper I had ever seen. Here’s our praying mantis pics: http://bumpinalongtheroadlesstraveled.blogspot.com/2010/09/weekly-wrap-up-back-to-school-2010.html
I’m not sure if I’ll ever get this Nature Study down…I don’t like bugs! Grasshoppers and definitely Praying Mantis’. Of course, I enjoy reading about them and seeing pictures…it’s the touching them or them touching me that causes me to have issues!
This year Grasshoppers ate all my garden 🙁 I’ve seen way too many of them lately!
We once bought a praying mantis egg case and watched them hatch and raised them. They were fascinating and great to feed.
Just yesterday, we heard a cricket. This reminded me that you can count the cricket calls and then use a special calculation (can find on internet)to find the temperature. We are going to try it this weekend and see how accurate it is. Should be fun!
We are seeing alot of moths and butterflies. I checked out a book yesterday on what makes it a moth or a butterfly. Had never wondered before. Grasshoppers galore now. And! We found another Evening Primrose emerging from the area the street cleaners cleared on the road we walk on. Nate said – hey a night flower. WOo Hoo!!! Maybe we’ll have a “when summer comes late” wrap up.
Last Friday we saw the bigger cricket ever! It was about 10 cm. It gave a real show to us, it was a she 🙂
After arriving home we studied our photo’s and found her name, the Great Green Bush-Cricket.
A photo is here:
http://web.mac.com/kuitenbrouwer/Paula_Kuitenbrouwer/Books_Etc./Entries/2010/9/3_Nature_Study_Autumn_2010.html
I, for ones, did not fancy this big bug crawling on my hands.
There aren’t any praying mantis here in the Netherlands or Belgium. I saw one in Italy a few years ago.
However, since recent years of warmer weather (climate change), there are more exotic bugs in the Lower Lands.
What wonderful photos of the posing praying mantis! We also found one that then checked out my son’s buzz cut at Angie’s Creation Club. Shamelessly sharing a link: http://www.hodgepodge.me/HodgePodge/Homeschool_Highlights/Entries/2010/8/27_Weekly_wrap__The_Rescue_%26_Release.html
Seems everyone is finding these guys 🙂