Great White……..Mantis!

Another week and another Lembeh surprise. I found a White Spearing Mantis!

We get quite a lot of mantis shrimp in Lembeh, both the smashing mantis and the spearing mantis. Smashing Mantis have round eyes and (as the name suggests) smash their prey. Spearing Mantis have oval jellybean-like eyes and they spear their prey.

The most common mantis we get are the Peacock Mantis, the Tiger Mantis and the Golden Mantis. There are also many other types.

What I didn’t know is that we also get a White Mantis. This is an un-described mantis that is only known from Indonesia and was completely unknown to me until I found this one!

It was rather conspicuous, in it’s borrow, bright white in a sea of black sand. And it wasn’t a small mantis, probably about 15cm (6”) long. It seemed fairly unconcerned by me and allow me to get some nice close-ups of a very unusual critter. I particularly like the close-ups of it’s eye, where you can actually see the multiple lenses that cover the eye.

Click here to see the video in a new window

As I mentioned last week, we have Constantinos Petrinos, the renowned photographer and author of the most famous book on Lembeh, Realm of the Pygmy Seahorse, staying with us for February. He has been helping all our guests, giving lectures on Lembeh in the evenings and, of course, taking photographs. Below is a selection of his photos from this week.

As I am off to the Golden Dolphin Show in Moscow this week, Constantinos will be writing next week’s blog. I look forward to seeing what he has to say.

Barb will be at KBR while I’m away and she will still be taking photos too. Here is are a few of hers from this week.

And it’s been a great week. More Blue Rings..we’ve seen several this week again, on several different dive sites. And we’ve seen Wonderpus, Long Arm, Coconut and Algae Octopus. There have been Broadclub, Pygmy, Crinoid and Reef Cuttlefish, as well as Reef Squid and Bobtail Squid on night dives. We have seen Ornate and Robust Ghost Pipefish. There have been yellow and pink Bargabantis, Pontohi and Severn’s Pygmy Seahorses, as well as Common, Moluccas and Estuary Seahorse. We’ve also seen Pipehorses, Pipefish (some lovely Winged Pipefish) and Lembeh Pygmy Seadragons. Crustaceans have been fab, with Harlequin Shrimp, Bumblebee Shrimp, Little Green Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp, Boxing Crabs, Donald Duck Shrimp, Xenia Swimming Crabs, Zanzibar Shrimp, Crinoid Shrimp, Emperor Shrimp, Hairy Shrimp, Orang Utan Shrimp, Tozeuma Shrimp, Carry Crabs, Candy Crabs, Hairy Squat Lobster, Squat Shrimp, Elegant Squat Lobster, Skeleton Shrimp, Mantis Shrimp, Porcelain Crabs, Superb Coral Shrimp, Cleaner Shrimp, Sea Spiders and many more. And we’ve seen Giant, Warty, Painted, Hairy and Occellated Frogfish. There have been Leaf Scorpionfish, Bubble Shells, Bobbit Worms, Pegasus Sea Moths, Spiny Devilfish, Ambon Scorpionfish, Solar Powered Nudis, Pickachi Nudis, Crocodile Snake Eels, Cockatoo Flounder, Flatworms, Electric Clams, Zebra Batfish and much much more.

Thanks to all our great guests from the UK, Singapore, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Greece, Finland and Russia. it’s been fab.

If you are reading this and live in Moscow, please come and visit me next week for the Golden Dolphin Show.

To enjoy all of Barb’s photos this week, just click on the photo strip at the top or bottom of this blog.

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