Can mantids eat flying ants?

[gadunka888]

i found these ant queens flying around a light. They are the size of a large ff. They are the Monomorium pharaonis i think. They can't bite.

 

[massaman]

prob can depending on the size of the mantis in question

 

[Ntsees]

Yeah, like what Massaman says above. For my mantids, they feed mostly on the grey field ant (Formica aerata) when other food is not available. The ants, when captured by the mantids, spray some form of chemicals that makes my mantids squirm but the mantids still eat them regardless. I wish these ants were the only ants in my backyard because they don't bite like those cursed fire ants/mound ants.

 

[kamakiri]

Don't know if I would...queens that I've seen appear to be able to bite and generally have large mandibles. I'd try the males first if you got them too.

 

[Matticus]

Those aren't queens.

 

[Rick]

They will generally eat anything they can catch. If there is another reason they won't eat it but instead will drop it.

 

[ismart]

Those aren't queens.

He has both drones and queens in that container.

Try them out and see what happens? Like rick said, if they don't like them they will drop em.

 

[gadunka888]

but how do you tell the drones apart from the queens? will the drones by suitable for L3 nymphs?

 

[Emile.Wilson]

The queens are much bigger than the drones, it should be pretty obvious.

 

[Kruszakus]

Great idea! Something armed with mandibles/acid as a feeder insect... Geez!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Great idea! Something armed with mandibles/acid as a feeder insect... Geez!

It does sound scary, doesn't it? Given that we (or some of us) feed insects like wasps, with very powerful prey killing jaws, I think that the formic acid would be more of a deterrent, though. In the U.S., at least, there are ants like the dreaded fire ant that don't leave acid trails, and I have seen the Arizona bordered mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, eat these, though I have never seen one hanging out by the numerous ant hills in the area. In the days when cultured food was unavailable, they were used by a number of researchers, including the Rau team (1913) and Bromley (1932), who fed them to the Chinese mantis Tenodera sinensis (though in his day, the genus was still "Paratenodera"!). Aside from any theoretical harm that they may do to the mantis (and I have never seen such harm reported) the big problem with worker and soldier ants is that they are mostly head and thorax, with very little useful protein on them. In that regard, the queens and drones shown in the pic may be more nutritious.