Hooded Mantis Archives - Retired in Costa Rica

July 10, 2022July 10, 2022

Cativo’s Other Wildlife

My nature experiences in a Playa Cativo Lodge this past week did include more than the birds & butterflies that I love to photograph! Here’s a few that I was able to “catch” in the camera and of course the biggies like Jaguar and Puma are there but seldom seen by us humans, even on night hikes! 🙂

DISCLAIMER/POSTPONEMENT: I did this post last night and couldn’t finish processing my photo-folders of Crabs and of Reptiles that I intended to include here, so now those two categories will come later in a separate post. 🙂

Mantled Howler Monkey, Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce & Piedras Blancas NP

And more . . .

November 9, 2017

Daytime Nature Hike

Our guide told us a lot about plants as well as animals.
I’ll do a separate post about plants & flowers in the forest.
The 2 young men behind the guide are from Chicago. 3 of us on hike.
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Parsa or Synchlora gerularia Moth
I’ll research more when I get home.
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Unknown Insect, a little beetle
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Unknown Insect, a little beetle
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Stink Bug
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Unknown Caterpillar
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Unknown Butterfly
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Glasswing Butterfly
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Red-tailed Dragonfly
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Walking Stick Insect
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

Paw Print of Ocelot
At least our guide thought so. See three toe prints right of beige leaf.
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

And the next morning this guy was in hotel garden – he fits with day hike varmits:

Hooded Mantis
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve
San Ramon, Costa Rica

We saw a lot more stuff and he told us about plants used for medicines, not only by natives, but also by modern pharmaceutical companies. Interesting but I will never remember most of that! 🙂

My Trip Photo Gallery: 2017 Nov 6-11 Villa Blanca

Or go through my general Costa Rica Gallery for subsets on insects, butterflies, plants, etc.

Or see the Villa Blanca Website And several more blog posts with more photos!

December 21, 2015

Hooded Mantis in the Dark!

A Hooded Mantis appeared in the dark
at my last dinner at Rancho Naturalista
No good photos possible

But what was more entertaining was the group from Denmark on their first night at the lodge. They scrambled all over the dining terrace trying to get photos of this little guy! IN THE DARK! It was funny and of course none of my photos are good, but here’s the experience anyway!

They tried so hard they kept scaring the little bug around the terrace.
Hope some of them got good photos!

For about two minutes dinner was controlled
by a Hooded Mantis

4% of World’s Species Live in Costa Rica!

“Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of wildlife, due in large part to its geographic position between the North and South American continents, its neotropical climate, and its wide variety of habitats. Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represents nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.” ~WIKIPEDIA

Photo of one of the many Anthurium flowers growing at Rancho Naturalista, one of my fave get-a-ways now!
I was so excited about all the new birds there that I failed to say much about the flowers which were beautiful!