A male Ghost Mantis is in the following picture:
Museum worker Chris lowering the shade
At the last HOLA (or Hands On Live Animals) I was attempting to use my new magnifier app on my new smart phone to take a close-up picture of Phyllocrania paradoxa otherwise known as a Ghost Mantis. Just when I was getting the phone ready, the leafy looking bug decided to take off! As in fly away… He (and it was a male mantis) made a few circles at a height of about 25 feet in the air and then finally rested upon the shade near the window. He’s in the upper left of the window in the above picture but you can’t see him.
Ghost Mantis at the top of the window shade
Using the zoom function of my camera (Not my smart phone) I was able to get the above shot of the little ghost while he rested on the shade. Chris got a ladder to reach the pull chord for the shade and gently lowered the little bug-a-boo so he could safely be returned to his cage. All is fine, so I thought, but when I returned to the museum the following week I found out that 1) Chris got a job a CSU and is no longer employed at the museum and 2) The females in the mantis cage ATE THE ESCAPEE ! … I guess they were a bit pissed off that he wanted some time away from the girls.