Millipedes

Millipedes: Two sets of legs per segment. Feed on decomposing plant material.

Cenitpedes: One set of legs per segment. Active predators.

Millipedes here come in all colors. Red....

Black (The red below her is a lava which she was feeding in the hollow of this tree trunk)
Yellow

Brown

and mating. LOL!!

Isn't he just the cutest? (Mantis)

We have many kind of mantis here and this is a baby of the Giant Mantis which gets to be about 5 inches in body length. The tail end eventually straightens out when it gets its first wings. It is a very common species and feeds mainly off caterpillars.
All mantids have large heads and compound eyes.

The female lays her eggs in cocoons like this which is mainly attached to branches. The cocoon is about 1 inch in length but there are hundreds of eggs in them.

Would you look at these legs!!!

My goodness!! If I had legs like this I could kick-start a battle-ship!! LOL!!

These are Twig Wilters ( Anoplocnemis) family Coreidae.
A large bug 24mm (about 1 inch) in length.

They inject a saliva with digestive enzymes into young plants which cause them to shrivel beyond the puncture and this is what they feed on.

They have stink glands between the middle and hind legs.

I wonder why they have such small heads?

Ant fight

These are not the best photographs I have taken as there was too much moving around.

Once again I have observed that it is always the smaller ants which attack the larger ones and I am wondering why this is as one would think it should be the other way around. I could even understand if was a whole lot of small ants attacking thee, but no, it is always just one??

Common Metalic Longhorn Beetle

These are medium sized, body length about 1/2 an inch.
They feed on pollen and nectar. The larvae feeds as it burrows into wood.

Their eggs are laid in the cracks of the stems or roots.

These were doing a mating dance around the head of the flower they were on.

Caterpillars

Even this late in the season, I am still finding some interesting caterpillars around. This one was climbing up the wall of the cottage.
He got such a fright at having his picture taken, that he fell onto the ground and I was able to get this interesting one of his cute little feet.I took him and put him on a nearby bush. I love those two tufts of hair sticking out on the sides.

A caterpillar in search of a home

It searched high.....
...and low,

on the mountains....

...and in the valleys...

"Ah!! This one will do. See you in the spring!!"