Spiny Flower Mantis scared of food?

[JoJo76]

Hello all I have a question ^_^

I recently rehomed my spiny flower adult female into a bigger enclosure. This is about 4 days after she molted. I noticed 2 blue bottle flies had hatched and are living with her. I say living because it has been 4-5 days and she hasn't ate them. I was getting worried because it had been almost 8 days since had eaten. So today I took her out and fed her 1 and a half mealworms. I was so excited to see her eat again. 

I put her back into her home and noticed something. A fly had come and sat mere inches from her. She took the defensive stance and I thought yes she will eat. Then she slowly turned sideways and looked away with her upper body pointed toward the sky. It looked like she was "afraid" of the fly. After a minute or so the fly flew off and she just went back to cleaning herself. 

Am I just worrying too much and she will go back to eating flies again? I have only been in this hobby for less then a year so I could have the 1st parent woes haha. Thanks in advance.

Joe

 

[Zeppy44]

I am too new to answer your question directly but if she had just eaten would she have been interested in more to eat?

 

[JoJo76]

True.

I was just worried about the stance she took. I guess everything is fine. I'll just keep an eye on her.

 

[GayJerk]

Depending on the species, smaller mantids can become very intimidated by slightly large prey. I wouldn't worry about it too much! Just wait till she gets a bit bigger or use smaller flies ^^

 

[CosbyArt]

Indeed as mentioned the Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii is a rather small mantis even as a adult (2", 5cm) so it may simply be afraid of them. As your mantid eats mealworms so freely I wonder if it's natural hunting instincts though are a bit dulled due to hand feeding, or if the mantid is simply just kept so full it doesn't bother to hunt.

 

[JoJo76]

Thank you for the replies. I'll keep an eye on her but it appears she ate the flies. I looked through the substrate and found some wings but no pieces of them. So it appears I was worried for naught. 

 

[CosbyArt]

Thank you for the replies. I'll keep an eye on her but it appears she ate the flies. I looked through the substrate and found some wings but no pieces of them. So it appears I was worried for naught. 

If you found wings then it ate the flies guaranteed, as a mantid never eats the wings. Glad to hear it ate them after all.