Are crickets canibals?

[kevinr]

I have put a few crickets in with my mantis, to try and tempt him to eat, but I have yet to see him eat, though he did make a few fake attacks when I put the in.

This morning, I noticed three of the crickets were dead, two had holes in their abdomens and one was 'sucked dry', but the mantis did not look as though he had eaten (his abdomen was still flat to look at)

So is this typical feeding behaviour of a mantis or just canibalism?

Edit: On closer inspection, it looks like the one which has been sucked dry, is just an empty skin, so do crickets moult like mantids?

 

[Ian]

Crickets WILL eat eachother, yes. Although, i think this might only be when another specimen has died. I have seen crickets eating other dead crickets, and that is not where they stop! After the mantisd sheds and they have really soft skins, they will not hesistate to consume the whole mantis. A large, freshly shed mantis can totally dissapear if there are 4 or 5 lingering crickets in the tank.

And yea, crickets do shed their skins.

 

[Rick]

Crickets will eat other crickets that have died. THere is a slight risk of crickets munching on a weak mantis. Your mantis may of caught the crickets and only taken a few bites.

 

[kevinr]

As i write this, he is just finishing off a sizable cricket, so I am happy he is eating well (just want to see him stalk and catch them now )

Thanks for the info guys, especially about the possibility of them attack my mantis when he moults. I'll get them removed later. i put so many in just so he could see there was prey, since the first one I put in, ran and hid.

 

[Rick]

I find it sometimes helps for mantids that don't see them to put in a thick rough stick for the cricket to climp up. Usually though if a mantis is hungry enough they will catch the crickets movement.

 

[Borya]

Crickets eat each other only if they have a lack of proteins in their food. I give them boiled meat, usually twice a week, and they really like it.

 

[ponchot]

I was quite mad when 2crickets took down one of my

Mantids this spring. The mantid had fallen to the ground

during a molt & I came home to 2 crickets attacking the

downed Mantid. Lets just say the crickets didnt stick around

too long after I found out.

I also had a cricket burrow into an ootheca that had

hatched. It was a perfectly round hole aslo

(made it look like a birdhouse).

 

[Butterflyhornet]

Answer is yes. Crickets DO eat each other and have no qualms about it either. Not only can they eat dead fellow crickets, but they can eat each other alive.

I witnessed a snowy tree cricket approach another of the same species that was in the same container. He walked right up to the other cricket and began munching on the other's leg! I think this lasted until the other cricket noticed and moved away. I think field and house crickets are no different.

In your case if there is a transparent skin, then your cricket molted. Take a look at your crickets and see if they are either absent of wings or have wing buds. Those are nymphs. Crickets and mantids have an incomplete metamorphis and grow by molting until they reach their adult stage.