That is the biggest praying mantis I’ve ever seen in the wild. Rather than water my plants now and put my hand anywhere near her, maybe I’ll just come back later. Yes. Later. Good hunting.

I wondered where all the snails went. Actually, I’m still wondering where they were hiding, waiting for the rains before making a mass exodus. They were everywhere: crawling up the siding of the house (one snail made it up two stories), over the patio and the grass, and even on the dog droppings. Wha? Yup. My eldest found masses on the droppings as she was scooping. Interesting.

My eldest likes to catch critters. The only one that has ever bit her here was a grasshopper! Here are a few she caught recently in the back yard!

A bit after we first moved here nearly three years ago, I saw a cool insect and looked up “black and white beetle” to find reference to the ironclad beetle. (I’m not sure why I didn’t get a picture at the time.) It is fascinating how much we don’t know about it! Here is a good blog post. I didn’t see another one until a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was dead in the catio. Bummer. I saw it in there again later and pulled it out to get a picture, because they are really cool, even deceased. I left it on the deck box intending to come back and see how hard the exoskeleton really is and investigate if I could make something from it. I was quite surprised when I came back later in the day and it was moving!! Rather than dismantle it, I transferred it to the wood pile in case it really does eat lichen and prefer dead wood. I also read another blog that mentions that they play dead. That is some serious method acting to play dead for over a week, but I checked on it again a few hours later, it was moving again! I put a lichen covered stick near it and when I checked the next day, it was gone. I hope it is out making more iron clad beetles!

Just because I haven’t shared a trail cam photo of an armadillo in awhile, I offer you one today. Happy Saturday!