Predator!

[enlightenment]

Using common name if poss, and pic even better, what species of Mantis have you had, that you would consider the ULTIMATE predator, for speed, accuracy, appetite, etc, etc..?

 

[Rick]

Heavily gravid female african mantis. Will eat anything and be very aggressive about it.

 

[enlightenment]

Heavily gravid female african mantis. Will eat anything and be very aggressive about it.

Agreed, I had one, a femalem BIG appetite, and pretty aggressive.

 

[Sheldon Johnson]

My first ever marble mantis. I was young, inexperienced and foolish. I bought a L2 nymph but had no food small enough for it. I attempted to feed it a cricket that was 3x the size of it and got lucky! The mantis launched at it and grappled it sucessfully! however, due to the sheer size comparison, the cricket didnt really notice and started to wonder off. The mantis, reluctant to give up its food just held on and was dragged around. 8 hours later, the cricket is near death with a rather large hole in it and the mantis is as fat as can be!

Gravid grandis are also quite violent, you can quite easily feed one adult female to another if she is hungy. And recently i fed a dying dessicata adult female to a lobata adult female, which was rather impressive, since lobata's are about 1/2, maybe 3/4 of an inch smaller in length.

 

[ABbuggin]

I have had a couople spiny flower mantids eat luna moths and hawk maths like crazy. The mantids are only 1 1/2" long but ate 6" moths!

 

[enlightenment]

My first ever marble mantis. I was young, inexperienced and foolish. I bought a L2 nymph but had no food small enough for it. I attempted to feed it a cricket that was 3x the size of it and got lucky! The mantis launched at it and grappled it sucessfully! however, due to the sheer size comparison, the cricket didnt really notice and started to wonder off. The mantis, reluctant to give up its food just held on and was dragged around. 8 hours later, the cricket is near death with a rather large hole in it and the mantis is as fat as can be!Gravid grandis are also quite violent, you can quite easily feed one adult female to another if she is hungy. And recently i fed a dying dessicata adult female to a lobata adult female, which was rather impressive, since lobata's are about 1/2, maybe 3/4 of an inch smaller in length.

I had a Madigascan Marbled Mantis too, and that was a good predator.