Hail Mantis!

ID: Ambivia sp

One of the best way to kick off the trail, there was this beautiful, well camouflaged, mantis sticking off the structure of the ticketing office. The disguised predator blended well with the structure on which it had frozen out, so well was the camouflage that I almost confused it to be some dried twig sticking out of the pillar, only on close observation I realized its true identity and went towards it to get some good frames. Being early hours of the morning, this beauty hardly tried to run or fly off and rather kept moving slowly higher on the pillar, probably attempting to capture a few flies that shared the pillar, but unfortunately due to its lethargic pace those flew off. The way in which it kept its front limbs folded and extended made the camouflage even more effective, though it almost resembled as if its 'Hail'ing someone.

EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro
F/9
Shutterspeed 1/125
ISO 500
Handheld, External flash fired

Location: Nagla trail

I like the focus of the image!

Agree it is so well camouflaged, its difficult to spot. Good details. Thanks for sharing.