Friends in the Garden

This small male mantid showed up yesterday among my morning glories:



This morning, when I pulled out my bike to go biking, I found an enormous female. Seriously, this thing is as long as my hand.



I generally find small bugs pretty cool, but after South Africa, the big bugs give me the shivers, initially, even if I know they're perfectly harmless. It's only after I talk myself down that the "Hey, cool!" factor kicks in.