The fauna (and maybe later some flora) of our home

My friend Alex has been keeping an electronic record of all the critters he's seen at his home for a few years. It's pretty impressive at this point. Not living in a very woodsy area, and not knowing how long my husband and I will live here at 227F, I haven't been inspired to start one up at our place.

That is, until last night.

I opened the door to find this guy, a 5-legged preying mantis, sitting out there on our front step. Too cool. He's missing most of one of his forelegs, seems to be broken off at his right first coxa. I don't know if he will be able to successfully catch prey at this point, but we let him go after taking his photo. So, I guess we'll never know.

Thus begins our guide.