The Praying Mantis and Her Velcro-Like Feet

I wanted to paint the cedar shakes Dan replace on the front porch last week.  But the two hardware stores Jon and I went to didn’t have the stain we needed.

This Saturday we found a hardware store in Greenwich, just 20 minutes away, that was able to mix an opaque stain to match the color of the house.

I put the first coat on yesterday and this morning did the second.

When I was almost done, I found this praying mantis holed up under the edge of the porch rail.  It was still cool out and the mantis was moving slowly.

But when I put two fingers out to her, she reached one leg out and gripped my finger.  Her feet are too small for me to see with my naked eye, but I could feel the rough velcro-like tug of her foot.  She looked like sloth to me, hanging upside down the rail,  reaching out one foot than the other in what looked like slow-motion.

When she finally pulled her whole body up onto my fingers, I held her up to me and she turned her face and looked right at me.

“Might I take your picture?” I asked.  When she didn’t move, I took it as a “yes.”

I think its the warmth of my hands that made the praying mantis want to linger.  She walked up one of my arms and before she got to far, I placed my other hand in her path.  She stepped onto my hand and then walked up that arm too.

When I held out a hand for the third time,  she stepped on again and I brought her to the  hosta in front of the porch.  She seemed reluctant to leave my hand, but finally stepped onto the big leaf.

Still she was in no great hurry and once again turned her heart shaped head to look at me.

And I looked back.

That was when I saw for the first time, the white dots circled in black, like two eyes on the inside of her “arms”.  Below them the little white polka dots and one more circle, this one yellow on her “forearm”.  Her “foot” had a dewclaw edged with what looked like fine hairs.

I went back to painting then, but when I finished I checked on her again.  She still sat on top of the hosta leaf and I wondered how safe she was.

So once again I held out my fingers and she climbed on.  Then I held her under one of the big leaves and she climbed under it, hanging upside down and out of sight.