Kokai Meister Adventures: 2010.10. - Exotic Beauties, Indoor Carts & Chinese Garden

J. left for France.
N. left for a group bike tour.
So - D, A and me had all the weekend to plan for ourselves. So we:

- went to the mall to get new yarn for Annie (she is still into crochet & embroidery),

- it was at the mall that we discovered an Exhibition of Exotic Insects.
Kids were allowed to examine them real closely.
Annie loved it. Did not want to leave.

This one is called the "Leaf Insect" or the "Walking Leaf" ("Das Wandernde Blatt" / "Vándorló Levél").

Leaf Insects can be found from Southeast-Asia to Australia. They represent one of the most remarkable camouflage by looking like a leaf.

In some species the edge of the leaf insect's body pretends to bear bite marks. To further confuse predators, when the leaf insect walks, it rocks back and forth, to mimic a real leaf being blown by the wind.

Then we had the "Wandering Violin Mantis" ("Die Wandernde Geige" Gottesanbeterin / "Imádkozó Sáska").

I found hard to believe what the scientific world defines as sexual cannibalism which is typical for mantises.
The female may bite off the male's head while mating which goes on nevertheless.

Mantises are predatory and feed primarily on insects. These type live in South India & Sri Lanka.

And here is the "Devil's Flower Mantis" ("Teufelsblume") which is one of the largest species of praying mantises which mimic flowers.

How ?

Like this.

I have certainly seen enough of these "beauties".

I declined to go back and bribed Daniel into Bowling and Cart Driving instead. (Was not very difficult.)

So here we went.

Daniel with his own car -lucky 'cause he is tall enough.

And Annie in a "tandem-cart" sitting behind me - clearly disappointed and insisting to return when she reaches the required height to drive on her own.

It is fun to drive around but it's loud, dark & smelly. Once we left I just wanted to spend some time outside in the sunshine. We stopped along a park in Frankfurt I have not seen before.