Let Us Prey

[hminx]

Wasp as a guest at a Mantis's dinner .....

[Lava Lamp]

I am envious. I have only seen a praying mantis in the wild once. And as luck would have it, I had no camera.

The yellowjacket makes the photo special. I thought at first that I would have liked to see its head, but on reflection, I think the bright "tail" is better.

Overall, the photo is missing just a touch of that "oh wow" factor that could have been there if zoomed in even more. I thought a crop could work, but you lose too much resolution and it becomes a touch noisy at that point.

Nice work.

[hminx]

Thanks Lava, this mantis is I believe one of type that is an immigrant from South Africa and quite common around here, I had to put three back outside yesterday.
The image quality is about as good as its going to get as I don't have a macro lens and have to make do with the sigma 17-70, which although isn't a true macro lens, gives a fair account for its self I feel.

[mattb]

Nice catch! (both you and the mantis)

[hminx]

Thanks Matt

[Erik_Olympus]

The yellowjacket makes the photo special. I thought at first that I would have liked to see its head, but on reflection, I think the bright "tail" is better.

Yes, because the mantis prefers the head and we can't really see how it may be devouring it. It's rather sinister.

[hminx]

Thanks Eric, sinister looking or not these things will quite happily walk ( with the slightest of prompting ) onto your hand and stay there until rehoused on some shrubbery....

[Ptax]

Nice catch! Were you just right place, right time, or had you been seeking out insects on this particular shoot?

[hminx]

I was looking for stick insects, and happened across this. Though I had put a couple of mantis's back into this bush from inside the house.........

[GB1]

Like the others say Pete, wonderful catch. Well composed, can't ask for much more. Yeah it would have been good to capture a bunch of different angles, to tell more of a story, but w/ photography like this you have to take what you can get.

Funny, but I always thought a wasp would beat a mantis in a fight. Maybe it was a bushwhacking / surprise attack..

G

[armando_m]

Nice, did you have an off camera flash ? or ....

did you get a shot from the front ? would love to see that perspective

[hminx]

Thanks Greg and Armando, appreciate the comments, this was taken using the on camera flash, I still don't own a speed light. the reason the lighting looks a little odd is because this was taken then inverted because the mantis is actually hanging under the leaf, on screen it looked a bit strange so I flipped it up the other way, but lets just keep that our little secret ....