Nature's Most Vicious Predator

You might be thinking that nature's most vicious predator would be a lion the king of the savanna, or even the great white shark that rules the open seas, or is it the great harpy eagle that can eat monkeys. These are all big predators, but one of the most vicious and cruel predators on earth is smaller than you think. It is the praying mantis.

Funnily, I had 3 praying mantises as pets before. The first one appeared on my bookshelf when I was still in pre-school, and we decided to keep it. We had to learn how to feed it, since praying mantises do not eat dead prey, you had to find live insects for it. Watching it eat was quite an interesting scene!

What are praying mantises?

Praying mantises are an insect that feed on other insects, small lizards and even small birds. I was very surprised to find out what they are cousins of the cockroach (yucks!). These insects have arms that are equipped with mini knives that can cling onto prey when they grab them, and they fold their arms in a way that makes them look like they are praying.

There are many different types of mantises, they have different colours and shapes in order to camouflage. Some of the coolest and most beautiful mantises are the orchid mantis, conehead mantis and the ghost mantis. You can see that they blend in so well with their surroundings.

Left to right: Orchid Mantis, Ghost Mantis and Conehead Mantis

Mantises have a uniquely triangle face. Observing them closely, you can see their jaws at the bottom of the triangle, their jaws are a weapon they use to bite and rip off the heads off their prey.

How they hunt and kill

When I had my mantises, I tried to feed them dead ants and flies, but they refused. Then I realised that they only grabbed the insects when they were running around in the tank. How they hunted was so cool! The mantis would creep up near the prey or stay at one spot. When they were ready to strike, they would sway their body from side to side that looked like the wind blowing a leaf on a tree (just like in this video).

When the prey walks near the mantis, it would ambush it in a sudden movement, grabbing it by its arms. In a blink of an eye, the prey would be struggling in the mantises' grip, where it would be eaten alive.

Head first?

This is what makes the cruel, mantises usually eat their prey headfirst. They seem to really love biting the heads or neck area off their prey while the rest of the bodies struggles. When they were eating small spiders, they would rip the limbs off the spiders and chew on them like lollipops.

Brave warriors

Mantises are also really brave. There was once my family spotted a small mantis along a river and decided to bend down to observe it. The mantis immediately went into a defence position and spread its body out, as if to challenge us to a fight. Maybe mantises are really fearless.

I hope you get lucky and see a mantis in action in your neighbourhood!