Corralitas Drive: Praying Mantis

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 14, 2015.  A 4" long Praying Mantis was was hanging upside down inside a patio umbrella.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)  

If you look closely at the above photo, she's cleaning one of her antenna.  She seem to have very large and wide abdomen and  check out the spikes on her front legs!  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 14, 2015.  She has excellent camouflage for a leafy green garden. There were even imperfections in her wings.  

Mantids are ambush predators.  I think this one had its sites set on the semi feral cat who likes to sleep beneath this umbrella.

She may be a California Mantis (Stagmomantis Californica).
*UPDATE:  We submitted this wide-bodied mantis to What'sThatBug? for ID, and she may be a Bordered Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata).
Daniel Marlos, The Bugman of Mt. Washington, admits it may take an expert to sort out the ID.   

Read more about Mantids:
Whats That Bug?
Bug Guide