Give us some pictures, when I was photographing the mantis he
sometimes wanted to climb the digicam, I will post a picture of him
just before climbing.
Here the guy, big and not aggressive, at least not against me. 
http://www.metahistory.org/MesotesAnimalPowers.php
Mesotes - Matrix of Animal Powers
The Gnostic Christos and the Interspecies Bond
The fowls of the heavens, and of the beasts whatever is beneath the earth, or upon the earth, and the fishes of the sea, these are they that draw you unto the Divine.
As to the first question, there is a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is, the Mesotes is the Manitou of indigenous shamanic traditions in the Americas. This is a powerful supernatural figure who traditionally appears to people on vision quests in the wilderness. In fact, the vision quest is not complete, and cannot be considered a success, unless the devotee encounters the Manitou or a power animal sent by it. In a sense, Manitou itself assumes the guise of a particular animal. Manitou is the spirit of the wilderness and the matrix of animal powers.
Generally, they are any kind of supernatural intelligence, plant- or animal-identified, that interacts with human beings to foster the connection between humanity and the natural world. The manitos are intermediaries.
In both cases, the Presence of the Sacred wells up from nature and imbues its human witnesses with the right and proportionate sense of humanity. The vision quest of the Americas is a direct encounter with the Spirit if the Wild, the Manitou, that not only confers visionary wisdom on the witness, but imbues him or her with a deepened and compassionately delimited sense of humanity.
Let's recall that the made-up word Mesotes literally means ‘half-joined,’ but it is better rendered as ‘intermediary.’ An intermediary joins two things. The Mesotes joins humanity as a species to all other species. This is the ‘pure unity’ that can be realized by encountering Manitou, the Spirit of the Wild.
The potential of our species is encoded in the human genome, ‘a living code.’ Each of us carries a share of the genius of the species in a genomic endowment, distinct from the genetic inheritance deriving from the familial bloodline. The genomic endowment, ‘the inward ineffability,’ is a phylogenetic transfer from the experience of humanity as large. As such, it transcends and overrides whatever traits we inherit from familial blood-ties. It is connected with the sense of a mission, a vocational calling.
The Mesotes-Manitou has a double function: to mediate between the human species and all other species, and through ‘the connection that heals,’ to engender in us the right sense of humanity, including our personal share in the indwelling genius of our species. The complementarity of these two functions cannot be overstated.
For Gnostics, Christos was not a redeemer and never assumed human form in flesh and blood. In the Sophia myth of the Mysteries, Christos is often paired with Sophia. They are the two Aeons who encode the singularity of the Anthropos, the human genome, with a range of species-specific potentials. At a critical moment when Sophia has morphed into the earth, and she is overcome by the density and diversity of the life-forms that arise in the biosphere, the Aeons of the Pleroma send Christos to intervene in her behalf.
In humanity, by contrast to other animals, symbiosis has to be realized by overcoming an inveterate tendency for self-obsession. ‘We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with all that is not human,’ David Abram says. By entering into kinship with all species, we overcome our anthropocentric tendencies, which can be vicious, harming ourselves as much as others. The Christos intercession effected a softening of human boundaries, especially ego boundaries, to allow enhanced empathy with all that lives. In this empathy we find our personal path more easily, because no creature lives by itself. The ultimate function of the Mesotes is a subtle, non intrusive guiding effect.
The luminous phantom is the subliminal inner guide, not a ‘life coach’ who fosters self-empowerment or collusion with God. It does not support the gratification of our personal lives, but selfless consecration to all that lives.
In the range of human instincts there is a drive for self-preservation (including preservation of the ego as well as the body) so strong it can counteract the drive to coevolve, to embrace all life-forms and to love Gaia, the earth itself. We are immersed in Gaian symbiosis, and we always have the choice to override self-preservation in the cause of life at large. The inner guide is a sublime gift endowed in our species from the Pleroma, an insuperable aid to self-correction.
Without the subtle guidance of the luminous phantom, we would be even more driven by insane egotism than we already are.
Here the guy, big and not aggressive, at least not against me.
So I reached for the trash can lid to yank it off when I see a long thin green bug scurry off across the lid and up onto the cement wall. It turns out to be a little baby praying mantis, no more than an inch and half long, thin and bright green, really cute. I call to Tom and he grabs his digital camera and comes out to look. Tom got up really close to this thing and as he's doing so the mantis is totally tracking his movements, turning his head around this way and that. ! So cute. But it gets better....when Tom got right up near him with the camera, taking digital pics, the mantis started taking swings at the camera! 
I'm serious, first he took both arms and slowly reached out to the camera, testing, curious, then decided to go for it and try to bop it! What a fiesty little thing! bop bop bop Kept trying to smack the camera, then even jumped at the lens! Then jumped off and down and hopped on over to a leaf in the bushes.
Praying mantises are so smart though, it's unbelievable. I loved its feisty attitude though, even as a little baby! He wasn't taking any crap, not even as a little inch and a half mantis that's only half the size of our pinky finger! bop!
]]>i remember during my trip to india - one night - in this room i was sleeping in (there were4 other beds - was sharing the room with my cousins) ... the sun had gone down (no electricity past a certain hour in that town), and so, there wasn't much light, except the candle light - and i noticed these spider-looking pictures painted on the wall - that's what i thought - that they were painted on the wall 'cause they were so flat - (they were large, about the size of my hand), so i went up close to look at one - and it when i got super close to it - it took off, straight up, to the roof - it scared me a little -my cousins caught wind of the situation and laughed it up ... those were some strange spiders
]]>I've also seen a wild tarantula in the desert. My dad pointed it out to me. It was kind of mellow and laid back, it just sat there resting at days end. It's fur was a beautiful grey color, short and shimmery. It kind of glowed. Arachnids can be fascinating and beatiful in their natural settings, but utterly disgusting in, say, the
tub.
When I lived in Florida we had some really big spiders. They were not biters, apparently, but regarded as kind of like flies and killed en masse by the locals spraying them. They were kind
of creepy, but I got used to them walking around while I sang show tunes at the top of my lungs in the pool house. It was like having an audience.( They never said anything, or seemed to want to bother me.) But as I say, I actually found those to be creepier than the much larger tarantula.
Now Mutant Spiders!
What next ? 
I didn't have my glasses on but when I looked up I could tell...........that was one HUGE ASS SPIDER trying to squeeze its way out of the light through the crack!
I grabbed my glasses to see and I swear, I have never seen a spider that big, other than a wolf spider. But this wasn't a wolf spider I don't think, judging by how the legs looked. I was like AH! and jumped back. This thing was going crazy trying to get away from the light that had just come on and its legs were just....dangling out of the crack, moving all over, scratching around and making a racket. The legs were each at least an inch and a half long..... thick, but hairless, and waving all around in the air. The inch and half is Tom's estimate too btw, he's backing me up on this!! haha But it seriously sounded like there was a mouse scuttling around up there in the light. UGH. This thing was big and noisy. It was just wrong in so many ways. SPIDERS SHOULD NEVER BE THAT BIG!!!!
I tried to not get creeped out by this thing, and maybe get all "Spider Whisperer" on it or something, and did muster some sympathy for it, but spiders - especially ones that look like that - are hard to feel the love for. ! Humans seem to be ingrained with a fear of spiders, to just stay away from them. Spiders and palmetto bugs....just can never get used to either of them.
]]> Then the little ball got impaled on a twig. The beetle's legs were pushing with all his might, to no avail.But here's the kicker....
That beetle was smart! He stopped what he was doing, went around to the back of the ball, investigated and analyzed what was causing the block. Then he proceeded the push the poo ball in the other direction, back off the stick. ! Then went around to the front and continued on his way! It was just too cute, I couldn't believe it. I don't know if this video is available now on DVD, but it's a good view. Who knew bugs could be so cute! Especially little poo bugs!
]]>Lyra, he must have had the most obnoxious brand of the Boston accent. "Wicked
Bad."Visavis, I like bees and wasps okay, too. Wasps in particular build amazing structures. And this, despite the fact that I was stung by one as a kid. But a couple of summers going back a few seasons, I lived very high on a third floor, and a wasp would soar in, circle the room, and then go outside again. It would do this
continuously, scouting. I believe it may have tried to start a nest in the top of the blinds, but I'd close the window on her(I think it was a her) and gave her the message not to continue. She did continue to visit me, circle the room in curiousity, fly right by my head, and leave. Then I'd say goodnight to my wasp friend and shut the window. This would go on all summer.Those giant Japanese wasps, however, seem terrifying!
Believe it or not, the Japanese Hornets although they are large, and come out at night, and can pack a might wallup when they sting, are the least aggressive. I sat and watched one come to my mulch pile and try and carry these huge pieces of mulch and barely able to fly to build a nest with. It worked all day.
]]>I also have a favorite tree when I go out for a walk. I kind of made a deal with it that me and it could share aspects of ourselves that would help us both transcend to the next level. I don't know if it's completely bought into the deal yet but I just love the tree. Lol... i'm laughing as I type this but I know there's something to it. It has a rough go, because it lives right by some power lines and it got some lower limbs hacked off. Its blood (the sap) is always dripping out of these hacked off branches. So that makes me sad. But it makes me feel positive energy when after I've been hanging out with the tree for a while, I continue my walk and there is some sap on my hands, just a bit, from where i was leaning on the tree.... the part that makes me feel good is when I rub my hands together and smell the sap.
I've always had a kinship with trees. It's like I can understand them. One definitely gets a "power boost" from them, especially oaks.
Maybe the sap was meant for you . . .
]]>
Visavis, I like bees and wasps okay, too. Wasps in particular build amazing structures. And this, despite the fact that I was stung by one as a kid. But a couple of summers going back a few seasons, I lived very high on a third floor, and a wasp would soar in, circle the room, and then go outside again. It would do this
continuously, scouting. I believe it may have tried to start a nest in the top of the blinds, but I'd close the window on her(I think it was a her) and gave her the message not to continue. She did continue to visit me, circle the room in curiousity, fly right by my head, and leave. Then I'd say goodnight to my wasp friend and shut the window. This would go on all summer.
Those giant Japanese wasps, however, seem terrifying!
]]>I like bees and wasps and stuff. When they land on me or are around me it actually makes me smile a bit inside. I can feel that they are one of the creatures that I am sending the love to.... I know, it is weird. Most ppl I tell that to think I'm nuts.
I also have a favorite tree when I go out for a walk. I kind of made a deal with it that me and it could share aspects of ourselves that would help us both transcend to the next level. I don't know if it's completely bought into the deal yet but I just love the tree. Lol... i'm laughing as I type this but I know there's something to it. It has a rough go, because it lives right by some power lines and it got some lower limbs hacked off. Its blood (the sap) is always dripping out of these hacked off branches. So that makes me sad. But it makes me feel positive energy when after I've been hanging out with the tree for a while, I continue my walk and there is some sap on my hands, just a bit, from where i was leaning on the tree.... the part that makes me feel good is when I rub my hands together and smell the sap.
]]>