My mantis has a pet

[sueb4653]

ok my female giant asian has had a cricket in her raptor all day I'm not kidding,the cricket is alive and she is not eating it what is up with that?

 

[agent A]

Full mantises in the wild hold onto prey until they are hungry again

Sometines captives still have this instinct

 

[aNisip]

Much like how tarantulas will encase a large meal with silk then come back and feed til its full, then re-silk til its hungry and then eat....mantids will be full but can still hold onto "extra" prey and save it for later...they can't put it in a doggie bag like us and save it for later...

 

[angelofdeathzz]

She's just trying to find her pocket to shove it into for later.

 

[MantidLord]

Full mantises in the wild hold onto prey until they are hungry again

Sometines captives still have this instinct

I'm sorry, but how do you know this? I've never seen this before nor have I read anything about this, and I'm not sure you can say "sometimes" captives still have this instinct. That implies that captives lose other instincts, which I don't know any mantis that loses an instinct.

What I've seen is that mantids will just drop the prey. The only time I've seen a mantis hold on to live prey was a S. carolina female and she was dying but for whatever reason was still hunting. She took a few bites, nothing fatal, and just held on to the cricket for hours before letting it go. Oh, and I posted a thread about this for a Statlia female I had. She too was on her way out. I'm not saying yours is gonna die, she looks healthy and lively, but those are just my two experiences. And unlike your mantis, none of them were fat and happy

 

[agent A]

Im not saying they lost the instinct but how often do u see them use it? They r used to multiple feeders being dropped before their faces, they can afford to waste food

In the wild (and i have observed wild tenoderas) they have to work for food and so i assume a wild mantis is less likely to waste it

I also observe this with hatchlings in a net cage, never see my older creobroter hold onto food but ill watch L1 creos run with both claws filled with ffs

So my wording was bad but the point is they have this instinct just not everyone uses it

 

[fleurdejoo]

Sue I love this! It's awesome.

We need another post asking people What's the longest you've seen a mantis hold onto prey without eating it?

 

[Paradoxica]

For some reason I'm reminded of this...

Except without the crazy sounding Japanese commentary

 

[lancaster1313]

My adult female Thesprotia graminis sometimes holds onto prey that she can't finish right away.

For an example: She held onto a freshly eclosed Tenebrio molitor imago(it pupated and eclosed in her enclosure) for at least 18 hours on a day that was before 11/16 (I don't remember the exact day). She finished all but the pronotum area in the time that she held it.

She was wild collected as an adult on 9/11, and is presently looking nice and healthy.

I have never seen another mantis, wild or captive, make a habit out of holding prey like this one.

 

[MantidLord]

Im not saying they lost the instinct but how often do u see them use it? They r used to multiple feeders being dropped before their faces, they can afford to waste food

In the wild (and i have observed wild tenoderas) they have to work for food and so i assume a wild mantis is less likely to waste it

I also observe this with hatchlings in a net cage, never see my older creobroter hold onto food but ill watch L1 creos run with both claws filled with ffs

So my wording was bad but the point is they have this instinct just not everyone uses it

Okay, I understand what you're saying. Still, I'd be hesitant with suggesting that the mantids know that they can waste food. To a mantis, everytime they hunt they have to "work" for it. Nevertheless, it's interesting behavior, I've never seen it before with a healthy mantis, wild caught or other wise. For those of you who have seen this, do the mantids still move around and do normal things such as groom? Or are they just holding on to the prey and not moving at all?

 

[Mvalenz]

My budwing females hold onto food all the time.

 

[lancaster1313]

My T. graminis hoarder will walk around and try to go into a better stick pose if I bother her, but she doesn't want to drop her prize. She once dropped to the bottom of the enclosure (in a stick pose) with a prey item and didn't let go of it, even when I moved her a little bit.