Recent Acquaintances

The Praying Mantis was hanging out in the stairwell at work.  He's the third I've seen in that same spot, and the smallest of the three.  He was polite enough, but didn't like a camera in his face.

The Grasshopper was hiding out under the house, perhaps scared there by the gardeners.  He or one of his cousins tends to fly in my path as I leave in the morning.

And Mud Dauber.  I got to watch this guy in action which was really exciting.  It started with me finding a rather limp wolf spider tucked into one of my succulents.  After (rather rudely, I admit) poking at him with a stick a little, I moved him to another spot to recover from whatever was ailing him.  Then, from the left, I sensed a frantic flying thing and saw the flash of the black mud dauber.  What had I done with his paralyzed prey?  Never one to enjoy messing with the nature of things, I put the wolf spider back where I found him and left for a moment.  Both were gone when I returned, and I unfortunately did not get a picture of the spider being carried away.