our son joseph has been in love with insects his whole life. he has recently started reading gerald durrell’s totally wonderful memoir, my family and other animals, one of our family’s favorite books of all time. following young gerry durrell’s nature-hunting adventures in the olive and myrtle groves of corfu has inspired joe to head out almost daily on insect gathering missions, and today he nabbed his biggest prize yet, a beautiful green praying mantis, that is currently housed in our living room. joe has made a house for her, and plans to forage for prey tomorrow for her, and has named her april, which i believe means that, technically, we have a new pet.
paying mantis on fennel frond
autignac, france
At the moment we are watching on PBS, The Durrels in Corfu. I read Gerald’s book a while back and loved it. So, I gave a litle shout when I read your post.
Lovely photo
Carol! How fun us that?! I just ran across the the PBS series when we were searching for the book. I can’t wait to watch it! Joseph just finished the third book in Gerald’s trilogy–I think he devoured all three books in five day!
Cheers to kindred spirits!
Mary Jo
Praying mantis are very aware of people. Maybe she can be trained?