Two things I want to share with you…

Jo Bryant, ,

1. This is my new mate…he visits via the bathroom window.

The Praying Mantis is named for the typical “prayer-like” stance.

They can turn their head 180 degrees for excellent vision and hearing.

And they are quite fun to have around…

2. I have been nominated in the Sydney Writers’ Centre Best Australian Blog 2012 Competition. The category Chronicles of Illusions is in is the Personal/Lifestyle Category.

I feel quite proud of this…

Chronicles is also listed in the People’s Choice Award.

Voting for the People’s Choice Award:

  • Opens on Friday 13 April 2012 at 5.00 pm
  • Ends on Wednesday 9 May 2012 at 5.00 pm

At which point I shall remind you that voting is open should you wish to to use your influence in my direction.

Enough of that…now back to my new mate !!!

Their life span is about 10-12 months but it may be14 months being in captivity.

They have an incredible appetite and if you keep feeding them in captivity they continue to eat until hey burst…literally.

Not all males get eaten after mating…the crucial time is just after they separate. This is the time when the female will grab and devour.

There are about 1,700 varieties of praying mantis.

This one in my photos is not the original native New Zealand Praying Mantis but an immigrant.

This Praying Mantis arrived from South Africa around about 1978. The New Zealand Mantis has a purple spot on its forelegs.

For more about the Praying Mantis in New Zealand, Forest and Bird has a great webpage and photo of the dinky-di Kiwi version.

But my new mate and me…well, we are both immigrants…so we’ll just muddle along together.

Published by Jo Bryant

I was born in the land of Banjo Paterson, gum trees, and weather extremes. I am a freelance photographer. I love to make images that make people happy. To capture forever a precious moment. I am also a freelance writer/editor. I live in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, but still like to claim my Australian heritage. I graduated with a Bachelor of Communications in 2008. I am writing my first novel. I love to write poetry, short stories, and also write for the web. And there is nothing that is on a par with a sunny summer's day spent at Waihi Beach.

48 Comments

    1. I am lucky to have him. As for the nomination…it is lovely, but I am not expecting much…there are a lot of blogs…big time commercial successes in the competition.

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  3. CONGRATS ON THE NOMINATION!! I’ll definitely put in a vote for you. As for your new buddy … well, I’m definitely quite afraid of anything larger than the size of a pin-head (LOL!) but, I did enjoy the photos. These really are quite beautiful!

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  4. a wonderful mate …and great photos … i do love praying mantises 😀 … but big congratulations on the blog nomination jo, that is terrific!!!!

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  6. Oh Jo, congratulations….how absolutely fantastic! You certainly deserve the nomination after the hours and hours (not to mention the blood, sweat and tears) you put into your blog.

    Don’t forget to remind us when the voting opens – I can’t rely on my Alzheimer’s brain, sorry!

    Good luck! X

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  7. I love your new friend! And CONGRATS on your nominations. I shall be eager to vote for you, if it will allow an American URL to cast a vote. I am so happy for you. Very well deserved! It’s obvious how much effort and time that you allot to your blog. It’s nice to see excellence recognized.

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  10. Awwwww…he is absolutely gorgeous Jo and congrats on the nomination and of course I am going to vote for you! 🙂
    *hugs*

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  13. Thanks for sharing the info about your new friend. I don’t know if I’ve seen one. And congrats on the news. Friday the 13th! I see this as a good omen. Cool Beans Jo!

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  14. I’m not a fan of most insects but a praying mantis is cute. Congrats on the nomination!

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  15. Congrats, Jo, you deserve the recognition. I’m happy for you 🙂 The pics are awesome as well. Looks like a scary insect to me … Might not hang much anymore with my wordpress people as hardly anybody reacts to my blogger posts for what ever reason. Wishing everybody all the best though. Love, cat.

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    1. Hey Cat…thank you !!! Check out blogger as I find it really difficult to get a comment to come up on anyone’s Blogger posts lately. it may not be because they don’t want to comment…but can’t.

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  16. Seriously, Jo, your blog just makes my heart happy.
    I always look forward to reading!
    CONGRATULATIONS on the nomination! What an enormous honor!
    Please do remind us when to vote for People’s Choice Award!
    Blessings, my friend.

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  18. Your new friend rocks, Jo!
    Congratulations on the much-deserved nomination!
    Now, more than ever, you rock!
    Sam and Dean would be so proud….

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  20. Add another congrats to the pile, dear friend! 😀 You definitely deserve it and I will be putting in a vote for you. I hope you win!

    As for your new buddy, I love mantids! They are awesome creatures. I once saw a mantis sit on top of a hummingbird feeder (the kind with the red flowers sticking out from the plastic container) and when a hummingbird got close to feed, the mantis struck out at it!! It wasn’t very big, but wow, I never would have believed it would have attacked something that much larger than itself and a bird (predator) to boot! I don’t know if it blinded the bird or not, but it didn’t come back.

    Also, when I was in college in Indiana, I came home to visit TN for a week (I think it was late March or early April). While in TN, my boyfriend at the time and I found a cocoon. We identified it as a preying mantis cocoon and were excited to put it into a tank and observe it hatch, thinking we could get some ants or something to feed all the babies and then let them loose into the wild to help the gardens and such in the area. Well…we got the cocoon safely back to Indiana (which is much further north) and the boyfriend stuck the cocoon in a window.

    We awoke the next morning to discover the cats going nuts chasing…you guessed it…baby preying mantids! 😦 The sun from the window had caused them to prematurely hatch, and as it was much colder in Indiana, we couldn’t release them outside yet. We managed to save about 50 of them (out of what were literally hundreds) in a tank and in the few hours it took us to figure out what to do, they had started cannibalizing each other. 😦 We ended up taking them to the entomology dept. at the university, where they were happy to keep them and take care of them until they could be released (and I think they saved some of them for the greenhouse there on campus). But the babies were SO cute! 🙂 Sorry for such a long comment. Just wanted you to know I share your love for these amazing insects!

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    1. I wish I could have seen that baby hatchery…cute as they are it is kind of scary they are so voracious.
      Thanks for the congrats…hope you had fun on holiday !!!
      And you can make your comments as long as you like !!!
      😉

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  24. Congratulations Jo on the nomination, And so pleased that little fellow is over in NZ lol.. Not that I dont think we could become friends 🙂 But sharing my shower in the morning! Hummmmm….. 🙂
    ( I didnt realise how much I’d missed over here…. ) will try harder.. to keep up! Love to you xx ~Sue

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