# Kill of the day



## harryallard (Aug 19, 2008)

Post details of your mantis's kill of the day here.

Mine took out a big moth yesterday

but he left the wings


----------



## Rick (Aug 19, 2008)

Last week shield female took on a cicada killer and won.


----------



## harryallard (Aug 19, 2008)

Rick said:


> Last week shield female took on a cicada killer and won.


cicada killers are huge.

weren't you worried it could kill your mantis?

or was it a female ck?


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 19, 2008)

not really recent but: ameles vs wasp; ameles won.. that was 2 years ago but it was tha bomb B)


----------



## The_Asa (Aug 19, 2008)

Nearly all of Oxypilus Distinctus (boxer) kills. They would take on anything!

A more recent kill involved an L4 shield mantis and a moth with very large wings. The moth refused to move and was still sitting there after a couple of hours so I sprayed it with some water to make it move. The shield mantis just drank the water off the moth wings until they fluttered and he ripped them off.


----------



## obregon562 (Aug 19, 2008)

one my L5 wide arms just took down a subadult katydid. it was about 3x its size! very cool.


----------



## Meiji (Aug 19, 2008)

I have some L3/L4-ish _Sphodromantis centralis _ that have no problem tackling grasshoppers larger than they can handle and were doing exactly that at feeding time last night. When their prey is too big to lift, they just pin it down and sink their faces into the prey's neck like Dracula having a meal or something. They are so much better at tacking food than, for example, _Tenodera aridifolia sinensis_ -- perhaps because their bodies are much sturdier and more robust. Conversely, my _Pseudovates arizonae _is such a dainty eater that he considers most flies too big to handle and exists primarily on tiny moths caught just for him.


----------



## harryallard (Aug 19, 2008)

i think the katydid is the biggest so far


----------



## harryallard (Aug 19, 2008)

but then again a cicada killer is just cool


----------



## Rick (Aug 19, 2008)

harryallard said:


> i think the katydid is the biggest so far


Cicada killer is bigger and much more ferocious. It was a female cicada killer which are the ones that can sting and are larger. I was not worried about the mantis. She is an old girl and will eat anything. She made short work of the killer. It tried stinging but I think mantids know how to deal with bees and wasps.


----------



## harryallard (Aug 20, 2008)

a female cicada killer :mellow: 

now you know what your up against people!


----------



## collinchang635 (Aug 20, 2008)

Rick said:


> It tried stinging but I think mantids know how to deal with bees and wasps.


Mantid can dodge the sting?


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 20, 2008)

Rick said:


> Cicada killer is bigger and much more ferocious. It was a female cicada killer which are the ones that can sting and are larger. I was not worried about the mantis. She is an old girl and will eat anything. She made short work of the killer. It tried stinging but I think mantids know how to deal with bees and wasps.


i did notice too, when my little ameles tackled a large hornet it avoid a sting and hold it so it could not move the stinger.

powerfull little hunters.

@ i like mantis: yeah, there pretty bright for insects.


----------



## Birdfly (Aug 20, 2008)

I had to get rid of my _Leiurus quinquestriatus_ death stalker scorpions in a real hurry as a kid (parents) but i couldnt so i gave them to my _Hierodula membranacea_ females. not very proud of it but hey i was a kid &lt;_&lt;


----------



## hibiscusmile (Aug 20, 2008)

what's a ck killer? :huh: I feel like I don't know anything! Aw shutup!


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 20, 2008)

hibiscusmile said:


> what's a ck killer? :huh: I feel like I don't know anything! Aw shutup!


as i just read somekind of big bug with a stinger :lol:


----------



## harryallard (Aug 20, 2008)

its a mahoooosive hornet


----------



## Birdfly (Aug 20, 2008)

Cicada killer, dont know if its the same species as yours Rick?

http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx...ers_hand_35.jpg


----------



## TylerFerretLord (Aug 20, 2008)

hibiscusmile said:


> what's a ck killer? :huh: I feel like I don't know anything! Aw shutup!


Any of a number of species of wasp in the _Sphecius_ genus. They're entomophagous parasites of cicadas.

...Why do I know so much about cicadas? I seriously do not remember reading this stuff. @[email protected]


----------



## Rick (Aug 21, 2008)

Birdfly said:


> Cicada killer, dont know if its the same species as yours Rick?http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx...ers_hand_35.jpg


Yep that's it. They fly around the yard and I knock them out of the air with a rake. They sting a cicada and drag it back to their hole and lay an egg on it. The egg hatches and feeds on the cicada.


----------



## mantidsandgeckos (Aug 21, 2008)

Birdfly said:


> I had to get rid of my _Leiurus quinquestriatus_ death stalker scorpions in a real hurry as a kid (parents) but i couldnt so i gave them to my _Hierodula membranacea_ females. not very proud of it but hey i was a kid &lt;_&lt;


you kept death stalkers AS A KID :blink: :blink: ????wow


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 21, 2008)

some people keep poisonous things as kids. i saw a 12 yearold boy woth a scolopendra cinculata..


----------



## collinchang635 (Aug 21, 2008)

Birdfly said:


> Cicada killer, dont know if its the same species as yours Rick?http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx...ers_hand_35.jpg


Whoa, thats a big hornet! :blink:


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 21, 2008)

Rick said:


> Yep that's it. They fly around the yard and I knock them out of the air with a rake. They sting a cicada and drag it back to their hole and lay an egg on it. The egg hatches and feeds on the cicada.


are they that easy to hit? i tried to knock some out with a stick but i couldn,t hit them..


----------



## mantidsaresweet (Aug 21, 2008)

Yeah from what I've seen they fly pretty fast


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 24, 2008)

L2 orchid VS big curly wing

man these are 20th century killing machines!!i added the fly to see how it goes.

orchid snatched up the fly wihc is just the size of it.

an one minute upside down pit fight was up next....

eventualy they both fell in a ball of legs and wing to the floor.. another 10 sec street fight.

eventualy my ferociou demon was able to overpower it, it walked to a branch and held it above the head and started amputating limbs... :blink: 

the L3 just jumped towards it and snatchd it up fast before it could blink...

the l3 ghost...

i tried to feed it an curly wing.. it jumped awy, they all did they just sit and wait till a klumpsy frutefly passes by..

not what i call warriors(exept spirit- she is eating whats in her eyesight.)

but still the queen was amelie(ameles decolor) who had a similiar fight as the L2 orchid, but with a hornet.(she was like a velociraptor.)


----------



## Rick (Aug 24, 2008)

idolomantis said:


> are they that easy to hit? i tried to knock some out with a stick but i couldn,t hit them..


With a big, wide plastic rake they are. Not with a stick.


----------



## johnny 5 (Aug 26, 2008)

mines not as impressive but... my l4 paradoxa took out a hover fly once.

it took her about 40 minutes to eat the whole thing. greedy ######.


----------



## Headspace (Aug 27, 2008)

Don't tell Mom!


----------



## mantidsandgeckos (Aug 28, 2008)

Wow.... :blink: :blink:


----------



## idolomantis (Aug 28, 2008)

:blink: i bet the one on the right has headache now :lol:


----------



## collinchang635 (Aug 28, 2008)

Headspace said:


> Don't tell Mom!


Ooooo...... :blink:


----------



## collinchang635 (Aug 28, 2008)

Here are my kills of the day:

Tropidomantid eating a giant cricket...











Ant mantid eating a giant cricket. Nitice that the crix head is missing, so that is the body without the head.


----------



## The_Asa (Aug 28, 2008)

Nice pics, love the Tropidomantid and Chinese pics.


----------



## mantidsandgeckos (Aug 28, 2008)

wow.... they are eating crix their own size.


----------

