A Touch of Stealth

Against an uncamouflaged background, this mantis soaks in the sun.

Pretty-looking things are not always what they seem to be:  In this case, nature’s innocent-looking praying mantis fits the bill.
 
With a long and slender body, twig-like legs, a triangular head that can rotate 180° with its two large compound eyes; the beguiling appearance of this bug-eating little monster is very deceptive to humans
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The mantis gets its name from the way that it can place its forelegs together in a mock-praying position.  Even its formal name, Mantis Religiosa, attests to that.
 
But the mantis does not pray.  Au contraire, it preys, and it is very good at it.  When the mantis assumes its professed “praying” stance, it remains perfectly still, with no movements at all for what can amount to tens of minutes at a time, shifting its posture ever slightly to a different stealth position so that it can strike out, hold, and disable its target.

The Predator in our Garden

A Praying Mantis assumes its innocent-looking

 posture as it waits for its next victim.

One of the most humbling experiences for mankind is that whatever it discovers or develops is merely an acknowledgement or an application of what already exists in its natural state. 

 
For example, the United States was the first nation to have applied military stealth technology with the deployment of bomber and fighter aircraft, one of which – the F-114 Nighthawk – was used extensively in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War.
 
Because its approach could not easily be detected by radar, the F-117 was a fear-inspiring ground-attack aircraft.  Nature, however, has its own way of employing stealth in the design of its predatory creatures, one instance of which is the Praying Mantis . . .