Field Notes: What’s a half-billion years?

Two mantids, cousins hundreds of millions of times over.

Taking this crummy photo was not fun, however. These were probably the two least cooperative subjects I have ever tried to work with. People in the movie biz harp about the inherent difficulty in filming animals and children. Well these are two petulant, child-like animals that had no interest in participating in my attempt at creating a cheesy, gee-wiz Powerpoint intro slide. I was literally sweating trying to herd these two into decent poses.