This was a year of infestations. Several varieties of grasshoppers hopped and flew rampant for a couple months, stripped my sole apple tree of leaves and were working hard on the native plum trees, stripping both the leaves and bark off any new shoots.
As with all natural systems, though, a boom of one species will generate a boom in another. Predator, prey. In this case, praying mantises (Mantis religiosa), supremely well equipped to capture and consume the bumper crop of grasshoppers. There are hundreds of both beige and green mantises everywhere on the property. They have always held a fascination for me, primarily how attentive they are to the presence of another being. Commonly kept as pets, I encountered this pair in rural Colombia:
Then the sex begins.
And ends.
* coitus during dinner