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Praying mantis seen hunting for fish in wild for first time
- tfha 8y agohttps://youtu.be/ooZtzyHTX7g https://youtu.be/ooZtzyHTX7g Maybe first time in the wild, bit we've known they eat fish for a long time. The above is a video of one catching and eating a fish, posted to YouTube 10 years ago.
- charmides 8y agoDisturbing that it does not kill its prey first.
- codetrotter 8y agoInsects tend to be like that; they just start eating.
- brahmwg 8y agoOften though they tend to target the head or neck for their first bites, I think with the intent that biting there will make the meal stop struggling[1]. Not all the time though, sometimes they grab the prey and just start chowing down, butt first :P [1] I had an African flower mantis as a pet ;)
- ryanianian 8y agoHow'd your mantis do with human interaction? I've been fascinated with them since I met one outside a couple weeks ago. They seem like they could do some real damage if they wanted to but all the reading I've done it seems like they're pretty tolerant of being handled and rarely/never bite.
- chrisseaton 8y ago> They seem like they could do some real damage if they wanted to A mantis could do real damage to a human?
- fanpuns 8y agoI have had this memory from some time ago about a scene from a podcast. Scientists in a lab are trying to wrangle an insect (which I remember to be a mantis of some kind) with a glass rod. The insect bites the rod with such force that it snaps and the arc of the motion lacerates the bugs middle (thorax?). From the cut fat begins to come out. Instictually the bug begins to eat it's own fat while dying. I wish I could remember or find the podcast. I feel like it was radio lab, but can't find it.
- pxq 8y agohttps://www.wnycstudios.org/story/185551-killer-empathy/ https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/185551-killer-empathy/
- albedoa 8y agoThe largest species can draw blood and might if they thought your wiggling finger were a flying insect. I don't know of any cases where a mantis did "real damage" to a human.
- BenjiWiebe 8y agoSome can be quite shy, but generally they are content to be handled and carried. They are a lot of fun as a pet.
- brahmwg 8y agoMine was in captivity since a child, so I don't think it ever developed the skills to fly. But sometimes when I would handle it, it would open and reveal it's eye-spotted wings; maybe because it thought I was a threat, or maybe just to impress me :P. When it was close to dying, it's behavior became erratic and it would fall over and not really be in control of itself. It did clamp onto my finger and take some nibbles in its near death state of confusion, but the spines nor bites could Pierce the skin. I barely felt it. TL;DR = mine handled fine and possibly enjoyed the excitement of adventuring up my arm. Never any naughty behavior until senility set in.
- albedoa 8y agoThey don't learn to fly, they just have that ability after their wings are developed. It's just that they don't fly often (in captivity or the wild). Also, my experience with the order in which they eat their prey is different from yours. Mine would eat fruit flies ass-first and would tear the wings off moths, both while the prey were alive.
- DanielleMolloy 8y ago> [1] I had an African flower mantis as a pet ;) types—this—into—google—images What the..! This kind (flower mantices) really looks incredible!
- gus_massa 8y agoClicky: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=African+flower+mantis https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=African+flower+mant...
- tomcooks 8y agoIt's not like it had sex with it before or anything /s
- qubax 8y agoIt's a lot more common in the wild than one thinks. Lions, tigers, wild dogs, alligators, fish, sharks, baboons, birds, hyenas, worms, bears, etc all eat animals that are still alive from time to time. Animals want to conserve as much enery as they can. As long as the prey is debilitated or not attracting other bigger predators, they'll eat it even if it is alive. Nature is really brutal when you get down to it.
- yesenadam 8y agoSo do humans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_seafood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_seafood
- random42_ 8y agoYes, and it is noted in the article: Praying mantises have occasionally been observed to feed on vertebrates, including small birds, lizards, frogs, newts, mice, snakes and turtles. But many of these cases have either not been scientifically validated or have occurred under human-manipulated circumstances. And there is no previous scientific data of mantises preying on fish.
- DoofusOfDeath 8y agoI don't understand what they mean for it to be "scientifically observed".
- lostlogin 8y agoI wonder what reaction the authors would get if the paper they submitted was entirely based on watching Youtube?
- comesee 8y agoI think the "preying on fish" part is key here not "scientifically observed." A captive mantis eating a fish placed in front of it is different from a wild mantis specifically hunting fish.
- drb91 8y agoPerhaps merely “in a reproducable fashion”.
- gweinberg 8y agoWell, the youtube video clearly"occurred under human-manipulated circumstances".
- daveFNbuck 8y agoThat probably just means observed by a scientist. If I report seeing a praying mantis eat a fish, that's not as reliable as if I have a video or if a trained scientist makes the same report.
- another-cuppa 8y agoWhy doesn't the fish wriggle? The fish looks much stronger than the insect.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- crtasm 8y agoWhat's the idiom... Like being nudged towards eating fish in a barrel. I'm fascinated by the choice of soundtrack on this video.
- bsilvereagle 8y agoSource: https://jor.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=28067 https://jor.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=28067
- ryanianian 8y ago> mantises appear to have evolved impressive learning abilities too I found a mid-sized mantis on my porch the other day. These things are fascinating. It seemed to have genuine curiosity. I kinda waved my hand in front of it, and its gaze followed for a bit before it seemed to get bored with my hand and then looked me straight in the eyes. Then it casually walked away without breaking its gaze (its head turning nearly 180 degrees as it walked the other way). I'm sure I was projecting and it was just trying to avoid being eaten, but it seemed way more intelligent than other insects. Thankfully these things aren't dangerous to humans otherwise I'm sure they'd have us enslaved by now.
- Razengan 8y ago> Thankfully these things aren't dangerous to humans otherwise I'm sure they'd have us enslaved by now. There's still hope. We may get discovered by a warlike spacefaring species.
- aldoushuxley001 8y agoIf history has taught us anything, it's that we are the most likely to enslave ourselves.
- atombender 8y agoThere's a curious and slightly creepy effect when you look into the eyes of a mantis (or other creature with the same kind of eyes, like certain species of shrimp), and dark "pupils" seem to be staring directly at you. Those aren't real pupils, however, but pseudopupils -- an optical effect where you happen to be looking at a straight line into one of the facets that make up the compound eyes. Seen head on, the ommatidia appear dark or black, while the surrounding ommatidia reflect the light outwards.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- throwaway0255 8y agoI love the last sentence of the article: > Adult females are known to eat their mating partners after sex. Just thought they'd throw that one in before signing off! But I do suppose a writer would be remiss not to remind you of that fact given the opportunity. And a fascinating comment (which I haven't confirmed yet) from a reader below the article: > Sigh, females HAVE to eat the head of the male to remove the inhibition stopping him from climaxing. > > It doesn't happen AFTER sex, it is required for the sex to be successful in terms of conception. I never knew that. This behavior has only ever been explained to me as some kind of vindictive or inexplicable act by the female mantis. I wonder how the female mantis knows that this is a way to disinhibit the male's climax?? Nature can be so strange.
- daveFNbuck 8y agoIf this is true, she doesn't have to know why she's doing it. If there's a genetic variation that causes this behavior and enough of an advantage to doing it, that's what natural selection will favor.
- brennebeck 8y agoStill controversial: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18049366 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18049366
- phyzome 8y agoThat's wrong, they don't have to do it. But it sure does help if they're not otherwise getting enough to eat! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#Sexual_cannibalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis#Sexual_cannibalism Apparently it happens more often under laboratory conditions than in the wild.
- brennebeck 8y ago> Early researchers thought that because copulatory movement is controlled by a ganglion in the abdomen, not the head, removal of the male's head was a reproductive strategy by females to enhance fertilization while obtaining sustenance. Later, this behavior appeared to be an artifact of intrusive laboratory observation. Whether the behavior is natural in the field or also the result of distractions caused by the human observer remains controversial.
- anonytrary 8y ago> The research team were surprised by the visual capability of the mantis, which could see its prey underneath the surface of the water. According to this 2010 video[0] of a mantis catching a goldfish, the mantis has no problem doing this, however it was a human-manipulated situation during daylight. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooZtzyHTX7g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooZtzyHTX7g
- newusertoday 8y agoshouldn't the title be "preying"?
- grzm 8y ago> "[Their] upright posture, while remaining stationary with forearms folded, has led to the common name praying mantis." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis