Here are some more shots of Sensei my Mantidfly. Thought I'd start a new thread for it
Sensei seems to do fine on about one meal a day. Sometimes he'll eat a little more than that if I'm offering, but I've gotten into the routine of catching him one of whatever I find on the backdoor window in the evening (various moths, long-legged flies, leafhoppers, just about anything will do. I haven't seen him crack open a beetle shell yet though). Sometimes I see large (~1cm or more) leafhoppers on the backdoor window (Gyponana spp.). It's a lovely creature, brilliant green with eyes such a bright vermillion they almost glow (doesn't really show in the pictures though). I usually don't bother with them because I assume that they are too big/powerful for Sensei to wrestle, but this evening I took one, figured I'd let Sensei have at it.
Well, the Mantidfly was pretty hungry, it turns out. It also turns out that I underestimated his raptorial forelegs, because it didn't take long before he was face-deep in green bugbutt. Yep, he started from the butt. I'm not sure why, because he normally bites the head off first (presumably to stop the prey from struggling). He really dug into this Gyponana and ate about half of it. Next thing I know, Gyponana is dragging itself by its remaining legs. The thing was still alive! Wow. Sensei is a really @$$face. It's not the first time I've seen him commit acts of cruelty on his prey. At least his torture of this Gyponana was secondary to eating it. I have seen him catch a fly, put it in a headlock, bend its body back and forth, probably hijacking the krap out of its nervous system, and let it go, quivering and disoriented, to die slowly of some malfunction or another. Anyway, that's how the cookie crumbles when you're a bug, I guess. I'm just thankful Sensei is as small as he is
Ok, enough yapping. Pictures!
Digging in:
Tearing at the meat. That's some prime cut right there:
So delicious I am going to stick my now fat butt in the air with excitement while batting my antennae ever faster!
Clearly, Sensei does not eat to live, he lives to eat:
Shockingly, Gyponana is not only still alive, but is trying to escape. It takes cover on the cedar foliage. If it doesn't die (I figure, things usually do die sooner or later when they get eaten in half), Sensei will most likely finish it later:
BTW, the cedar foliage was something I threw in last weekend when changing his substrate. I noticed that Sensei seems to like flattish surfaces. He avoids the twigs but hangs out on the glass or the screen (in the lid of the jar). He still prefers the screen, but I have found him on the underside of that cedar twig a few times now.
-Tomato
Sensei seems to do fine on about one meal a day. Sometimes he'll eat a little more than that if I'm offering, but I've gotten into the routine of catching him one of whatever I find on the backdoor window in the evening (various moths, long-legged flies, leafhoppers, just about anything will do. I haven't seen him crack open a beetle shell yet though). Sometimes I see large (~1cm or more) leafhoppers on the backdoor window (Gyponana spp.). It's a lovely creature, brilliant green with eyes such a bright vermillion they almost glow (doesn't really show in the pictures though). I usually don't bother with them because I assume that they are too big/powerful for Sensei to wrestle, but this evening I took one, figured I'd let Sensei have at it.
Well, the Mantidfly was pretty hungry, it turns out. It also turns out that I underestimated his raptorial forelegs, because it didn't take long before he was face-deep in green bugbutt. Yep, he started from the butt. I'm not sure why, because he normally bites the head off first (presumably to stop the prey from struggling). He really dug into this Gyponana and ate about half of it. Next thing I know, Gyponana is dragging itself by its remaining legs. The thing was still alive! Wow. Sensei is a really @$$face. It's not the first time I've seen him commit acts of cruelty on his prey. At least his torture of this Gyponana was secondary to eating it. I have seen him catch a fly, put it in a headlock, bend its body back and forth, probably hijacking the krap out of its nervous system, and let it go, quivering and disoriented, to die slowly of some malfunction or another. Anyway, that's how the cookie crumbles when you're a bug, I guess. I'm just thankful Sensei is as small as he is
Ok, enough yapping. Pictures!
Digging in:
Tearing at the meat. That's some prime cut right there:
So delicious I am going to stick my now fat butt in the air with excitement while batting my antennae ever faster!
Clearly, Sensei does not eat to live, he lives to eat:
Shockingly, Gyponana is not only still alive, but is trying to escape. It takes cover on the cedar foliage. If it doesn't die (I figure, things usually do die sooner or later when they get eaten in half), Sensei will most likely finish it later:
BTW, the cedar foliage was something I threw in last weekend when changing his substrate. I noticed that Sensei seems to like flattish surfaces. He avoids the twigs but hangs out on the glass or the screen (in the lid of the jar). He still prefers the screen, but I have found him on the underside of that cedar twig a few times now.
-Tomato
