So, Daddy brought home a preying mantis the other day, that he caught at work. They're such interesting bugs. We put him in our butterfly pavilion and watched him watch us. He seems almost alien with his eyes, the shape of his head and the way he moves it to look at something. A couple days before we had already caught a fuzzy, yellow caterpillar. We were guessing what he would turn into. But the mantis moved in and the next morning the caterpillar was no where to be found. I thought I'd find the mantis a little breakfast, not realizing how disturbing it would be to watch him chow. I found a grasshopper, chased him for a bit and then made introductions between him and "Manty." The intros passed quick (we're not into formalities) and breakfast commenced. OH MAN! I'll spare the gory details and leave the rest to you imagination or a PBS Nova special, but as you can see from the picture, the grasshopper's head didn't remain intact very long. My poor son, I tried to prepare him, but I had no idea how quickly the whole ordeal would take place. He didn't want the grasshopper to be eaten, but by that time there was no stopping it. I said that I would take the bugs away so he didn't have to see it, but he opted for front row viewing instead. So, after it was all over, what did we do? Went out hunting more grasshoppers!