Odd moment of the day: late in the afternoon one of the teachers in the staffroom started screaming. It wasn't loud enough to be alarming, but the screaming certainly attracted the attention of all around her. It turned out she'd seen a large insect near her desk - a praying mantis. In the interests of full disclosure I should tell you the teacher in question teaches Biology.
A colleague, another biologist, came to the rescue, picked up the rather large insect, and carried it mercifully to its freedom outside. As he passed supporting the creature gently on his hand it struck me as something quite extraordinary - beautiful in its way, yet forbidding. I've never quite recovered from seeing a film years ago capturing an act of sexual cannibalism involving two of the family Mantidae and I suppose that continues to colour my view of them.
So, all in all, isn't life peculiar when you weigh it up, whatever the specie involved?
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