Praying Mantis eating a humming bird

You may have heard of how praying mantis are such bad assess.

After sex the female will eat the male.

Well here's one picture that truly surprised us, a mantis eating a humming bird. Yes, a fricking bird ! They usually only eat things like crickets.

We've seen spiders eat birds before but this is one legendary picture! I'd love to know how this insect caught it's prey! So I actually read the comments on reddit (I know, I do deserve a medal) and found this hypothesis as to how the green goblin did the deed:

"So hummingbirds are impressive as fuck, what with their ability to beat their wings eighty trillion times per second. They can hover, move forwards, backwards, up and down and side to side. They're also FAST. However, the praying mantis is hanging from what looks to be a hummingbird feeder, and that's the one place that they're likely to land. So my guess is that the praying mantis went all double-O ninja on her ass when she went down to get a snack."

These insects are more bad ass than a quote by Darth Vader!

As found on Reddit

Leave a Comment bird, praying mantis

Who wins in this battle between a giant preying mantis and a bird?

Remember this? Well it's happened again and the battle for life and death was won by the Mighty Mantis. It would seem this sparrow like bird thought he could have a tasty dinner of preying mantis but how wrong was he? 

This mantis is huge and managed to overcome his attacker by using his massive arms. He's clearly been going hard at the gym but the looks of him!

2 comments bird, praying mantis

Praying Mantis eating the head of a dragon fly.

You would think if Animals Eating Animals was going to show a Praying Mantis picture, it would be of one eating it's mate - a practice for which they have a certain reknown. Well we did, a while ago.

Instead we bring you a praying mantis eating the head of a pretty dragon fly:

Praying Mantis have also been known to eat crickets and the odd bird!

As found on reddit. 

Leave a Comment dragon fly, praying mantis

Is is true Praying Mantis eat each other after sex?

The Praying Mantis

The Praying Mantis has to be the coolest bug or critter on the planet I reckon. For two reasons. They are usually green and green is the coolest colour and two, the female apparently eats the male after copulations. We'll look into that in a minute but first I thought about why I'm doing a post on the Mighty Mantis!

I had a wonderful Easter lunch at a friend's where their 1 year old had a pet Praying Mantis - and whilst he was playing in the sun porch he found another. His dad put in in the jar with the original and, the excitement over we went and had lunch. 

Post chicken and potatoes we had a look at how the green-eyed monsters were playing. NOT TOO FRIENDLY! The original mantis was half way through eating his new jar mate, and in doing so proving to me that Pray Mantis do eat each other!

A colloquial name for the order is "praying mantises", because of the typical "prayer-like" stance, although the term is often misspelled as "preying mantis" since mantises are predatory

Although the praying mantis is known for its cannibalistic mating process in actuality it only occurs 5-31% of the time. Which kind makes me think those are some crap odds!


Apparently in laboratory set conditions of bright lights and confinement, the female mantis is more likely to eat the male as means of survival. A scientist once reported:


"In nature, mating usually takes place under cover, so rather than leaning over the tank studying their every move, we left them alone and videotaped what happened. We were amazed at what we saw. Out of thirty matings, we didn't record one instance of cannibalism, and instead we saw an elaborate courtship display, with both sexes performing a ritual dance, stroking each other with their antennae before finally mating.


OK so that's a little better then.


There is one species, however, the Mantis religiosa, in which it is necessary that the head be removed for the mating to take effect properly. Sexual cannibalism occurs most often if the female is hungry. But eating the head does causes the body to ejaculate faster....

The mantis has an huge appetite and some have been known to eat up to sixteen crickets a day, but this is not limited to just insects. They are well known to be carnivorous and cannibalistic, and only eat live prey in both nymph and adult stages. Praying Mantis are well known to love eating flies but hey have also been documented  as eating 21 species of insects, soft-shelled turtles, mice, frogs, birds, and delicious newts. 

Although the European mantis was introduced to the mighty United States to eat the horrible insects that destroy precious farm crops, other species are known informally as "soothsayers," "devil's horses," "mule killers," and "camel crickets" since their saliva was mistakenly thought to poison farm livestock. That was probably the Armish. I'm suggesting it was them because according to the stereotype I've gleaned from film and tv, they don't apparently have the internet so I'm in the clear. 

Not many people know that the the mantis can lash out at remarkable speed as it catches prey.  Prey items are caught and held securely with grasping, spiked forelegs. Check out this butterfly photo below:

Butterdead

Wasp being eaten by the Mantis

A fly being eaten

Fried Fly Wing for dinner

Said the grasshopper to the mantis?

Here's the classic picture of a praying mantis some how managing to hold onto a fucking bird. Maybe it was the most hungry mantis in the history of the entire species? I can respect that, it reminds me of this snake pulling up a kangaroo up a cliff. 

Bird attacked by a Praying Mantis

Leave a Comment bees, birds, bugs and critters, butterfly, fly, praying mantis, wasp

Praying Mantis eating Crickets!

Behold the green glory of Brunner's Mantis or Stick Mantis dining on his cricket friend, the Brunneria borealis! Upside down even. Can you eat your lunch upside down?

What are you looking at? I'm not sharing his juicy head ok? I'll leave you some tasty cricket legs.

Image Source

Leave a Comment bugs and critters, cricket, praying mantis