# Dropped the moth mid-chew



## stablebum (Sep 5, 2007)

My mantis purposefully let go of a half-eaten moth... She had eaten a big one just an hour or so earlier. Does that mean she isn't hungry anymore?


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## asdsdf (Sep 5, 2007)

Usually, it means that. Are you sure it's a female? Most of them should be ravenous.


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## joossa (Sep 5, 2007)

It could be that she was full (most likely). Was the second moth the same as the first?

Some of my mantids have dropped moths when they begin to eat them. I think that sometimes they find them too fuzzy to eat. Also, I have noticed that mine do not like to eat the wings. When chewing on the wings instead of the juicy body, the mantis will most likely loose interest and drop it. It seldom happens, though...


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## Asa (Sep 5, 2007)

Probably something about the moth. A mantid generally doesn't drop something it will hunt for.


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## Rick (Sep 6, 2007)

> Probably something about the moth. A mantid generally doesn't drop something it will hunt for.


I've seen mantids drop half eaten food a million times. It is quite normal.


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## AFK (Sep 9, 2007)

i can think of 2 theories:

1) if the abodomen is REALLY bloated, then it was most likely full.

2) the mantis may have encountered an inedible part of the insect, and it may be instinctively programmed to rotate the insect for only a certain amount of time or number of rotations before it considers it "no longer edible" if it doesn't find an edible portion of the insect within that timeframe.


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## stablebum (Sep 12, 2007)

It wasn't too huge, but it was really fuzzy and pitch black. I never saw one before in my area...


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## stablebum (Sep 12, 2007)

It wasn't too huge, but it was really fuzzy and pitch black. I never saw one before in my area...


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## joossa (Sep 12, 2007)

> It wasn't too huge, but it was really fuzzy and pitch black. I never saw one before in my area...


Don't worry too much about it... it happens. In fact just yesterday one of my mantids did the same with a moth. I have never tried feeding any of my mantids that type of moth before (it was small and black). I found it laying eggs on my grapevine out back, and thought it would be a good meal for one of my males that I hadn’t fed in a while.

Well, he took a "bite" and stopped, then after a couple minutes, he dropped it. I do know that he was hungry because I later gave him a house fly and he devoured it right up! I guess it didn't taste any good :wink: .


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## stablebum (Sep 12, 2007)

I gave her a moth type I know she loves today, and I came back from walking dogs...its head was bitten off, and the body was next to it on the bottom of the tank unscathed. She killed it, and dropped it. Is that a sign that she's going to molt soon? And how often do they molt?


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