Large naturalistic enclosure observations

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I now have more evidence that the orchid mantis is capable of adapting its hunting behavior to its prey and that it actively seeks out suitable ambush sites. For several weeks, my orchid mantis was fed flying insects. For some reason, these flying insects tend to follow a rather predictable pattern in my enclosure; they buzz about the top section and often come to rest on the vegetation along the back wall. When my mantis had become adult and started eating again after many days of fasting, I introduced flightless house flies, from a culture I bought. The mantis noticed the flies and then proceeded to test different ambush sites. I recognized one site it had used previously with some success against flying prey. Not much was caught there and soon the mantis started to climb the glass walls, after watching the flies do this. In all the previous weeks, the mantis has only spent brief periods on the glass walls, getting from one point to another. Now he started to lurk there. After trying one spot, he moved on to sit on a small ledge made up of my thermometer, which is attached to the glass door. Soon thereafter, I noticed the remains of a fly underneath his mandibles. So apparently he identified a spot that the house flies seem to like and took up position there.

As I've seen before, he will stay for a day or two in a site where he's found prey. If more prey arrive, he will stay there. If not, he will look for movement and proceed to new spots.

I can see no other explanation than this for the movement patterns I've observed. He can move up to 40-50 cm in a day while searching for a site, then sit almost perfectly still for two days straight, followed by new excursions.

 
Tony said:
I now have more evidence that the orchid mantis is capable of adapting its hunting behavior to its prey and that it actively seeks out suitable ambush sites. For several weeks, my orchid mantis was fed flying insects. For some reason, these flying insects tend to follow a rather predictable pattern in my enclosure; they buzz about the top section and often come to rest on the vegetation along the back wall. When my mantis had become adult and started eating again after many days of fasting, I introduced flightless house flies, from a culture I bought. The mantis noticed the flies and then proceeded to test different ambush sites. I recognized one site it had used previously with some success against flying prey. Not much was caught there and soon the mantis started to climb the glass walls, after watching the flies do this. In all the previous weeks, the mantis has only spent brief periods on the glass walls, getting from one point to another. Now he started to lurk there. After trying one spot, he moved on to sit on a small ledge made up of my thermometer, which is attached to the glass door. Soon thereafter, I noticed the remains of a fly underneath his mandibles. So apparently he identified a spot that the house flies seem to like and took up position there.As I've seen before, he will stay for a day or two in a site where he's found prey. If more prey arrive, he will stay there. If not, he will look for movement and proceed to new spots.

I can see no other explanation than this for the movement patterns I've observed. He can move up to 40-50 cm in a day while searching for a site, then sit almost perfectly still for two days straight, followed by new excursions.
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Interesting observations, Tony. ;) Where did you get a culture of flightless house flies? I've never seen or heard of any of these for sale... so very curious!

 
Interesting observations, Tony. Where did you get a culture of flightless house flies? I've never seen or heard of any of these for sale... so very curious!
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They're available on mail order here in Sweden. They cost about as much as a starter culture of fruit flies. Quite practical. They tend to mutate in a much less predictable manner than fruit flies though. Quite a few of them can fly almost as good as a normal fly and probably around 50% can "glide" 5-10 inches or so. Which is quite annoying when they jump from your hand. But they're great mantis food.

 
OK... how? smile.gif
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1. Find wild flying specimen, 2. Start cultures from these, 3. Select flies to promote genes you like, 4. repeat step 2.

:p

 
Katnapper said:
OK... how? :)
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I fill a 3oz (I think) delicup nearly full of moist sphagnum moss or whatever, so that it nearly comes up to the top of the pot and sprinke bluebottle pupae on top of that and put the lid on. The flies eclose fine, but they are unable to "pump up" their wings, so I never have blue bottles buzzing around the house. :p

 
Sorry, Tony... but I think Phil's got you beat for simplicity and the time factor (instant flightless flies)! :p Hmmm... never would have thought of that. Pretty good thinkin' there, Phil! ;)

 
Tony said:
I now have more evidence that the orchid mantis is capable of adapting its hunting behavior to its prey and that it actively seeks out suitable ambush sites. For several weeks, my orchid mantis was fed flying insects. For some reason, these flying insects tend to follow a rather predictable pattern in my enclosure; they buzz about the top section and often come to rest on the vegetation along the back wall. When my mantis had become adult and started eating again after many days of fasting, I introduced flightless house flies, from a culture I bought. The mantis noticed the flies and then proceeded to test different ambush sites. I recognized one site it had used previously with some success against flying prey. Not much was caught there and soon the mantis started to climb the glass walls, after watching the flies do this. In all the previous weeks, the mantis has only spent brief periods on the glass walls, getting from one point to another. Now he started to lurk there. After trying one spot, he moved on to sit on a small ledge made up of my thermometer, which is attached to the glass door. Soon thereafter, I noticed the remains of a fly underneath his mandibles. So apparently he identified a spot that the house flies seem to like and took up position there.As I've seen before, he will stay for a day or two in a site where he's found prey. If more prey arrive, he will stay there. If not, he will look for movement and proceed to new spots.

I can see no other explanation than this for the movement patterns I've observed. He can move up to 40-50 cm in a day while searching for a site, then sit almost perfectly still for two days straight, followed by new excursions.
Click to expand...
This thread is one of the most fascinating, thoughtful and well observed (I feel as though I am writing a reference :D ) that I have seen on this forum and there have been some good ones.

Learning behavior in insects has been studied for well over thirty years, and includes ongoing work on mantids. The leading researcher in the US is, I think, Martha Weiss at Georgetown: [email protected]. You might want to Google articles on insect/mantid leaning and seriously consider sending her some of your material. She might give you ideas for future experimental design.

Good luck.

 
Tony said:
I now have more evidence that the orchid mantis is capable of adapting its hunting behavior to its prey and that it actively seeks out suitable ambush sites. For several weeks, my orchid mantis was fed flying insects. For some reason, these flying insects tend to follow a rather predictable pattern in my enclosure; they buzz about the top section and often come to rest on the vegetation along the back wall. When my mantis had become adult and started eating again after many days of fasting, I introduced flightless house flies, from a culture I bought. The mantis noticed the flies and then proceeded to test different ambush sites. I recognized one site it had used previously with some success against flying prey. Not much was caught there and soon the mantis started to climb the glass walls, after watching the flies do this. In all the previous weeks, the mantis has only spent brief periods on the glass walls, getting from one point to another. Now he started to lurk there. After trying one spot, he moved on to sit on a small ledge made up of my thermometer, which is attached to the glass door. Soon thereafter, I noticed the remains of a fly underneath his mandibles. So apparently he identified a spot that the house flies seem to like and took up position there.As I've seen before, he will stay for a day or two in a site where he's found prey. If more prey arrive, he will stay there. If not, he will look for movement and proceed to new spots.

I can see no other explanation than this for the movement patterns I've observed. He can move up to 40-50 cm in a day while searching for a site, then sit almost perfectly still for two days straight, followed by new excursions.
Click to expand...
This thread is one of the most fascinating, thoughtful and well observed (I feel as though I am writing a reference :D ) that I have seen on this forum, and there have been some good ones.

Learning behavior in insects has been studied for well over thirty years, and includes ongoing work on mantids. The leading researcher in the US is, I think, Martha Weiss at Georgetown: [email protected]. You might want to Google articles on insect/mantid leaning and seriously consider sending her some of your material. She might give you ideas for future experimental design.

Good luck.

Edit: Ha! As a consequence of reading your remarks, I was talking to Mija about insect learning (including one really awful undergrad experiment on manids and warning coloration) and linked her to your thread. She said: "Yes its quite good. Too bad he only has a male." lol! I guess that women are only happy when a male settles down and starts to raise a family! :D

 
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Edit: Ha! As a consequence of reading your remarks, I was talking to Mija about insect learning (including one really awful undergrad experiment on manids and warning coloration) and linked her to your thread. She said: "Yes its quite good. Too bad he only has a male." lol! I guess that women are only happy when a male settles down and starts to raise a family!
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:lol

Thanks for spreading the word! I didn't start out with serious expectations, I just wanted to see how a mantid would behave in a larger, more naturalistic environment. Since I'm writing a thesis, I spend most of my time at home so consequently I can observe my mantis during most of the day.

I could easily imagine a far more thorough experimental design but since I have only one viv and my significant other isn't particularly thrilled about having more than that, this will remain a very limited operation.

By the way, I just saw my mantis observe flies moving halfway across the viv. I think that the situational awareness of an orchid mantis is quite a bit more than we usually give them credit for. The systematic behavior of the mantis has continued for the past week. He moved to the back of the viv again to survey a new spot there but only stayed for a day, then moved back to the front glass door to sit on the thermometer/hygrometer again. Fly remains still appear on the thermometer/hygrometer so this spot is apparently well chosen and that explains why he moves back there. It is interesting to see that he moves to the exact (in terms of millimeters now) same spot every morning.

I've also concluded that my mantis has an urge to each night move to a position where he is suspended upside down in reference to the "sun". If light falls in from the side when the enclosure is dark, he will move to sit so that his underside is facing the light. This is probably nothing new, just thought I'd mention it since I see it every night.

EDIT; it could also be of interest to know that my mantis never sits upside down suspended from the ceiling during the day. Every morning he climbs down and every night he climbs back up, but he always moves to a separate spot during the night.

 
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PhilinYuma said:
I fill a 3oz (I think) delicup nearly full of moist sphagnum moss or whatever, so that it nearly comes up to the top of the pot and sprinke bluebottle pupae on top of that and put the lid on. The flies eclose fine, but they are unable to "pump up" their wings, so I never have blue bottles buzzing around the house. :p
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how does it work?
 
I'm betting you have kept Dart Frogs Tony, amazing enclosure, I might try this one day with a communal species.

Great work. :)

 
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Today is the first time that I've noticed a very strong indication that my mantis jumped from one spot to another, covering approx. 5-8 inches. I saw him eyeballing a couple of flies lurking on the "log" in the middle of the vivarium. He was sitting in his current usual spot on the door. A while later he had moved and looked as if he was ready to jump across. Nothing happened, so I went about other business. A short while later when I looked in, he was sitting on the log, in the spot he had pointed his body toward before. If he were to walk there, he would have had to walk all along the length of the door and either to the rear right corner or the front left one. In addition, the thermometer/hygrometer he was sitting on was slightly tilted to one side. It's attached fairly loosely with magnets but hasn't moved a millimeter in weeks. Now all of a sudden it has a very noticeable tilt to the right. This is consistent with how it could have been moved by the force of the mantis jumping from it. I curse that I didn't see it. I also noticed that he was licking his raptorial arms and that a fly wing was next to him so I think he caught a fly.

This is in line with my previous observations. The mantis will notice movement of potential prey, observe it for several hours or even a day or two, then swiftly move to a new location close to the observed prey. He's also much more active now, moving around slightly in various places on the log to find the best ambush site.

EDIT; I took a few macro shots of him today (I love my vintage 100 mm Minolta AF macro lens; 1:1 goodness and f/2.8-32), as soon I get the roll developed (yes, I know, I'm old-school, etc.) I can scan them and post here.

 
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