Miomantis paykullii: A dramatic waste

[tylersterrain]

I decided to make a video of my Egyptian mantis eating a mealworm. Turns out he only wanted half.

This is my second mantis video so once again comments and concerns are welcome

Here is a link to my first video:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=26482

Also, is it ok to post videos under the "Mantid Photos" tab?

 

[hibiscusmile]

something about it made him throw it away! maybe he had to go potty!

 

[Rick]

Or maybe he think you can do better. Mealworms are a poor food choice for mantids.

 

[mutrok4040]

Or maybe he think you can do better. Mealworms are a poor food choice for mantids.

Maybe this one prefers mealworms.

 

[tylersterrain]

Honestly mealworms are just easy. They are cheap and stay in a small refrigerated box. This was actually my second time feeding my mantids mealworms. So far they have munched on flies, crickets and now mealworms. What makes mealworms a poor food choice compared to others?

 

[mutrok4040]

Maybe they should be fed sparingly due to fat content?

 

[tylersterrain]

Every source I have found says they are around 30%. Which is high considering most other feeder insects seem to fall in the range of 10-20%. They still have about 50% protein. I guess humans aren't the only animals with extra body fat as babies/larvae. Funny that in so many ways we are just animals on this planet "of ours".

Under the "better safe than sorry ruling", mealworms are just an occasional feeder from now on for me.

However, I found an interesting article that is very relative to the topic.

http://phys.org/news78584899.html

I wont feed this off topic anymore after this post.