Favoritos de mferr

Was watching this mantis hunt for honey bees on California Buckeye. She ignored the native bees. After several misses, she caught one, and was bombarded by 2-3 other honeybees for about 20 seconds before they gave up. While finishing off her honey bee, the mantis is grabbed by a female Western Fence Lizard that leaped vertically 9" into the air (I measured later). They land on the ground in a confused heap six inches from my foot, with the lizard on top and the mantis grabbing on to it. Everyone freezes, especially me, since I don't want this battle to go up my pants leg. I move into a better position, and after a while the lizard gets off the mantis and there's a long standoff where they stare each other down from about 6" apart. Finally, the lizard grabs some other small insect (ant?) from the ground and scuttles away under the buckwheat. With the coast now clear, the mantis hustles back up into the buckwheat. The End.

This cat let me hang out in the field with it for 20+ minutes while it was hunting. A few minutes of perfect light happened near the end as it just hung out, and circumstances allowed me to stay hidden behind a structure with it closer than normal as the sun set to get these photos.