[VIDEO AND PHOTOS TAKEN: SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2025 | Video and Image IDs: A video and six photos of a brown and green male Chinese mantis with black eyes. In the video it's standing on a human hand, flicking its antennae and sticking its front legs out curiously, before crawling onto the camera. In the photos, the first two show it on some dirty plastic siding, with a more top-down angle; the next three are of it on the same hand as before, one facing the camera with its front legs blurred from motion, while the other two face away and show off its wings; and the last one on a wooden surface, showing it clean its antenna /End IDs.]
Tenodera sinensis, the Chinese mantis! Specifically a male mantis. If you didn't already know this about mantises, their eyes turn black at night to help them see better!
... Also at some point I scared the mantis and it jumped away with its antenna still in its mouth :P
