I swear I only wanted to shoot asparagus flowers! (Took me some time, wind being the main problem as their flowers are tiny and the slightes wind would destroy the motive.)
But then, all of a sudden, a mantis flew through the gap between my arm and body - and settled on that asparagus plant!
Had I searched for them it probably would have taken plenty of time but I didn't and so she came to me, seems she wanted to become popular. You are now, dear Mantis religiosa - you're on the world wide web!
As you can see on her face, after the first enthusiasm she was quite annoyed that I drive away her pray; so I left her alone, especially as she threatened to eat me as mantisses do (they may eat their mate during or after mating; true, I didn't try to mate with that one so I really was on the safe side).
(Some species information: they're huge, as this one was; at least five to six centimetres was this one, and they can grow bigger. They're spreading to the north for some years already due to climate change, but here in Lobau they're native since millenia already.)
