Take a moment to appreciate the mantis

When I was a kid, I was always pretty delighted to run across a praying mantis. Don't know about you, but where I grew up we only had these green mantis dudes:
(Stagmomantis carolina--the green ones are females)

But there are many other, cooler mantids out there, like this guy:

Seriously, I can't believe we live on the same planet as these things. Anyhow, all of this is just by way of telling you to check out the pics here by U-Md. mantisist David Yager. (WP)