A Mantis following me...(corrected post)

On Insect - the one after me

Today I went to take some pictures of this unusual rose in front of my work place...cos it doesn't look like the standard roses I'm used to seeing. As you can see the picture above is not too clear...

So I took some tissues and held the thorny rose branches....and bent them over ... so I could get a better shot at the rose. OH ! I almost screamed ...I jumped and let go of the rose branch !

Cos I saw this....behind the rose, on the leaves.....Oh...First I thought it was a beautiful Leafy Phasmid [ I thought it was...but I went back to Wiki and did more digging and it wasn't !!! :( ]. Now I know that it was a Praying Mantis, it is named " Praying Mantis " , because of the typical " prayer-like " stance of the insects .... I guess you could see it in the picture above and below. Uh...so sorry for misleading you all...sob sob. Mantises are masters of camouflage and most species make use of protective coloration to blend in with the foliage to avoid predators themselves, and to better snare their victims [smaller insects]. Various species have adapted to not only blend with the foliage, but to mimic it, appearing as either living or withered leaves, sticks, tree bark, blades of grass, flowers, or even stones.