Praying Mantis

[dodecahedron]

OK so me and the wife and the lil' one and some family went on a trip last weekend. went to see a dog show.
on the way back we stopped to dine in a restaurant on the Gilboa mountain, just about in the middle of no-where.
we were sitting on the porch of the restaurant and it was partly open to the air around (wonderful view). suddenly i notice this little bugger on my knee!

my wife's cousin's boyfriend said this is a male, according to the spots and coloring - that's to attract females.

[LoneWolf]

Wow, the ones I've seen in the States are all solid light green. I wonder if there are some subspecies.

They're pretty large in size here when you find one, but that one looks HUGE.

[Alejandra]

Nice photos, cool insect

[MediumRare]

Nice photos, cool insect

I'll second that. Nice closeup! I haven't seen any of these in the wild yet but will keep my eyes open.

G

[rc213]

Nice pics, quite Freaky looking.

[bill]

Very nice pics, Dodec

Never seen a mantis that looks like that so I tried google to find a name.
Link
Couldn't find any that looks just like your fella but was surprised at all the different subspecies.

[dodecahedron]

thanks.

yeah, all the Mantis i've seen so far were all-green. this was a first for me.
like i said, my relative said the coloring (white spots and spotted hues of green) aren't permanent, but have to do with the mating season. well, i didn't know they change their appearance, but maybe it's correct.

i think he was about 3 or 3.5 inches long.

as a matter of fact they're quite common around here, and i've even had some enter our house a few times in the past. the wife freaked out

yeah, insects are very varied. more so than any other family of species as i understand.

[dodecahedron]

well, the wife, lil' one and i went on a holiday to Eilat (that's a resort city on the Red Sea).
maybe i'll post some nature pics from that in another topic.

but on the way back we stayed one night in a desert motel, and next morning we met this fella on the floor near the entrance to the room.
very well camouflaged on the floor tiles!
a smaller specimen than the one from the previous pictures, i'd say about 2 inches long.

my son started touching him with the finger LOL tried to move him. he didn't budge much. i think i would've been afraid of getting nipped!