ive never hears the word lantos. ill look it up. she laid it in a flower box of impatients that i had to trash.(i saw her hovering around that very flower box for a week or two and i recognized her by a marking on her leg.) powdery mildew and rot. so i relocated it to a jap holly. box all have opposite leaves. all spp of ilex have alternate leaves. i once watched an egg casing in spring as the egg casing popped open and dozens of tiny, fully formed manti emerged, big as my finger nail. just hopping all over. my favorite beneficial by far. an aristocrate among insects. beautiful, i'm not ashamed of saying. there are organic pest control services now that will implant your property with all kinds of benificial insects like ladybird beetles and mantis. instead of blanket spraying hort oil or permitrin all over everything. ppl are so quick to spray. its becuz the companies that spray make mega bucks doing it. i know. i used to do it until last year. they instill fear. offer a cheap alternative and just kill everything. i'm happy to say i dont do that anymore.
the first is a beetle of some sort. i think. the second is a preying mantis egg casing. i watched her lay it. first time i ever saw a mantis doing that. coolest thing i ever saw, well today anyway. the last is a pesky deer. but since i'm a city boy it's still pretty cool to see one out my front door.
