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Thrifty Thursday: Preying, Praying, Whatever. It's a Mantis.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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Thrifty Thursdays feature photographs taken with equipment costing less than $500.

[Apple iPhone 4s - $300; backlit with a desk lamp]

A standard iPhone 4S doesn't normally have the oomph to photograph insects. Unless the insects are extremely big. A five-inch long Chinese mantis fills the frame at the iPhone's minimum focus distance.

Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books and media outlets.

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