Unfurling

Sometimes the things I see in the backyard are just confusing. I don't always understand the behavior of insects, or the situations I find. Case in point, today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Praying mantis. When I spotted this I had to look hard to be sure I was actually seeing an insect, not just a bunch of dead leaves.

 So the question is, what's going on here? What happened to its wings?

 I can't tell if they're injured, or did it just molt and this is the final molt into adulthood so the wings are brand new and haven't expanded and dried out yet?

 I didn't find out. I annoyed her so much she decided to flee into the undergrowth.

And speaking of wings unfurling...

 ... another monarch eclosed today. Female.

 

 I wasn't home when she eclosed, because I had to leave at a ridiculously early hour this morning and she had not come out yet. But she was there when I got home, so I brought her outside and after taking her picture placed her on this tree to rest and prepare for flying, and then I went in to get some more sleep.

 When I came out later she was still in the same spot, but the moment I saw her she flew! She then landed on this plant, right at my eye level. I know I am anthropomorphizing, but I felt like she had waited for me to come back out so I could see her fly. After posing for a few pictures, she flew off into the same tree where I had left her, but closer to the top (it's not a big tree, but it's much taller than I am). So I continued with my bug walk, and when I got back to that part of the yard, she took off again, flying higher into the trees at the edge of the woods. Again I felt like she had waited for me, to show me what she could do. Well done, Butterfly!

 The ever-elusive red-spotted purple. It was not until I started studying the bugs in my backyard that I realized how much time butterflies spend up in tree. I suppose that makes sense, because they are generally not so visible up there, but it's another one of those things I just never noticed about the world until I started to pay attention.

 The net-winged beetle was still in the same spot as yesterday. I checked, it's still alive.

 Damselfly

 Dragonfly

 Grasshopper nymph

Scorpion fly