Indian Bark Mantis - eats & cleans (video)

[Precarious]

Sub-adult female Humbertiella ceylonica captures blue bottle flies in lightning fast strikes. You can see all 3 strikes repeated at normal then .25 speed at the end. Take note of the unique patterns on the eyes and the yellow inner-mouth parts.

Music by Precarious

This is old footage from years ago. Figured I'd post since the species is back in circulation.

 

[Mime454]

I was wondering when you were going to post these. OP finally delivered!

Really great music production choices. Makes her seem like a scary robot.

I feel like you would need to shoot at like 1,000+ FPS to get a clear idea about what goes on during this super fast strike.

 

[D_Hemptress]

great ending!

 

[SilentDeviL]

great Video

 

[Precarious]

I feel like you would need to shoot at like 1,000+ FPS to get a clear idea about what goes on during this super fast strike.

Yeah, I should have recorded at the highest frame rate.

 

[Bug Trader]

Very nice.

 

[agent A]

the music made it seem like she was on a secret mission :detective:

 

[Jukeboxx]

Cool video! May I ask what your camera setup is? I'm trying to shoot macro on my canon but can't find a cheap solution... I'm a poor college kid...

 

[Precarious]

Cool video! May I ask what your camera setup is? I'm trying to shoot macro on my canon but can't find a cheap solution... I'm a poor college kid...

This was shot on a Canon HSF200 camcorder using a $20 magnifying filter (diopter). It's just a mid-grade consumer model but with really good macro ability. The magnifying diopter takes it to the next level.

If you're talking about shooting video on a DSLR you would need a macro lens that goes down to at least 1:1 (aka 1x or actual size), such as the EF 100mm 1:2.8. Even then you'd need further magnification. I'd guess there are points in this video at about 3x magnification. The only lens able to do that costs over $900 (Canon MP-E 65mm - Great lens!), so you'd be stuck using additional dioters which degrade signal quality (chromatic aberration).