We're seeing Mantids Everyday

It was another day. The recess was 45 minutes this time, giving me an additional 15 minutes to hunt. The garden looked lifeless to me this time. We found absolutely nothing after lifting up the stone slabs, flower pots and bricks. But as I walked by a particular plant, something, upon knowing my presence, moved from the top to the underside of the leaf. At first thought itself I knew what it was. I immediately called my friend and moved to the other side of the plant. There, hiding under the leaf was a tiny Praying Mantis.

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I could not get such a good shot though. After distracting it to the top of the leaf, it showed up its front legs, as if it was trying to scare me away. I took this as a good opportunity and photographed it.

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Very quickly it tried to escape to the underside of the leaf, but I was determind to get a better photograph of it, so I made it stay where it was, taking a few more shots.

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Now with a Bird's Eye View of what it looks like.

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Well, this is not the only mantis that I spotted. Within a few minutes after taking my shots, I found another mantis on the same plant! It was very weird why there would be two mantises on a single plant. I went forward to look at the second mantis and I soon started to photograph it. I tried my first shot. Well, I did capture its body but its head was hidden behind a leaf.

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The soft flash disturbed him slightly, so he decided to move about onto the next leaf. But I did make sure it didn't go towards the other mantis or both of them will be in hot soup.

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So that was were it would stay. Under that particular leaf. My recess was nearly over by the time I took all these shots, and hence I had to take my shots faster. After taking a shot of it as it dashed to the flower, I left it and ran to class.

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Apparently I think that these mantises are juveniles as they still have not developed wings, and use the 'hopping' method to escape from predators. The mother may have laid her eggs somewhere close by, causing these two particular mantises to end up on the same plant. Well, I am still hoping to find a few more of these tiny mantises, as these surely should be animals that have adapted to an urban environment.