Hanging around

These guys were hanging around my garden today. The cloudy conditions brought these friends during the hottest part of the day I guess. It's hard to see insect at midday these days because of the heat wave like conditions were are experiencing lately. Maybe it's the other way around, because I don't go up to the terrace garden so much these days since the heat kind of scorches my skin.

This praying mantis has been on this temple tree since the time it was a baby. It was almost invisible then and used to hide behind the flowers and leaves when I am there. This image was take a couple of weeks ago when he was brave enough to hang around even when I was in the garden. This is his attempt to camouflage himself. He kind of looks shy, doesn't he?

This is another of his brave poses. If you notice his mouth you'd notice that it is pink and very tender looking, but this area looks so much different after a couple of weeks of growth.

His eyes look bigger and broader here. His body also has become much more wider and healthy looking. His mouth is well defined now and is mostly greenish with a bit of tan color. I wonder why but these praying mantis seem to love the temple trees very much, they hang around these all the time.

His head and face have changed a lot during the last two weeks.

Then this visitor came by, he seemed to be pretty hungry and was found sucking nectar from old flowers as well.

Moving from flower to flower this guy couldn't be bothered that I was standing so close by.

His huge eyes and the marking on his wings were clearly visible because of his nearness.

On one occasion he even flew right in front of my face, but like all butterflies he wouldn't sit in one flower for long. Then I went around looking for bugs I didn't find much.

I turned around all the sweet potato vines hoping to find the green bugs in hazmat suits, but I didn't find any. I didn't know whether to congratulate myself or feel sad that there were no pests in the garden LOL. This is an image from a few months ago.

This shimmering Japanese gold beetle on the all spice tree made my day.

Here are some more images of the praying mantis hanging around my garden. I am so indebted to these guys as the keep my garden free from pests. They eat up most of the bugs except the scaly bugs.

Isn't he cute? He is hanging from the ivy gourd vine. The world of insects is such fun to watch, sometimes I wish I had a macro lens to help me photograph these creatures much better.

A pupa of a butterfly

Thanks for hanging around this long, I hope you liked what you saw. Have an amazing day!