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Mantis religiosa
(Picture 3) Dark spots on the underside of the arm identify these as the European Mantis.
Grassy area in suburban backyard
Several young Praying Mantis were displaced when I trimmed down an overgrown (and cricket riddled) patch surrounding an old snag (a dead/dying crab-apple tree) in the backyard.
The absurdly blurry third picture shows such dark coloring (the one up by the "armpit" is hard to make out unless you are actually looking at it due to the blurriness of the pic, I'm afraid.)
"The European Mantis is usually 5–7.5 cm (2–3 inches) in length, and has shades of bright green to tan. It can be distinguished easily by a black-ringed spot beneath the fore coxae." Wikipedia
Spotted on Jul 31, 2012
Submitted on Aug 28, 2012
