Wahlbergii Loses To Long Tongue

[giesle]

I have been reluctant in posting these pics on this forum for obvious reasons, but here goes. This Wahlbergii has been my favorite mantis I have ever had, even though she never would give me a threat pose like most of this species, and the main reason I got one....pics of their beautiful threat pose. They are smaller than I thought and very energetic. Just a cool little mantis. She had developed almost solid purple eyes and my next photo shoot was going to be of some good closeups showing those eyes. I couldn't tell for sure, but they might have started to get that way because she was getting old and about to pass....not sure. I got her in early May of last year as an L2 or 3. I had been trying to get a good tongue shot of my cham, and a mantis is the only thing that would he would eat that would stand out well enough in the pic and/or be photogenic enough, so I was using my two crippled Idolos. He nabbed the presub Idolo, but I missed the shot....you probably saw that shot below in this forum. I guess the sub Idolo was too big because after a couple days of trying he never had any interest. The only mantis I had that I wasn't scared might hurt my cham and that was the right size, was my Wahlbergii. I thought about it for a few hours and finally just did it. I actually called in sick for work last Thurs and Fri, mostly because I don't ever have time to shoot anymore and I wanted this shot. Sure enough, about 5 seconds after putting her up there my cham struck. Luckily, he missed, because so did I.....first pic of the two below. It really is incredible how fast that tongue is. I couldn't believe he missed and I had a second chance. I guess he just needed to stretch it out. After looking at the camera's exif data, I see that there were 6 seconds between the shots, so he didn't waste anytime for the follow up attempt. This time I was honed in with all I had, holding onto my remote shutter release with it half pressed, waiting......laser eyes on the cham's mouth.......be the tongue.......bam! I pressed the button at the exact moment I saw his tongue move out of his mouth with such might, I jumped when I did it. I got the shot just as his tongue had wrapped around a wing and started back. I had always envisioned this shot, but with a mantis giving a threat pose, so if she was able to give one, maybe I would have gotten it, and this would be on the cover of National Geographic next month......ok, maybe I'm dreaming now.....I don't know.

 

[Mime454]

Love the shot, sad that the mantis is dead though. :-/

 

[Paradoxica]

I wouldn't have done that myself, but that is a great shot

 

[giesle]

Love the shot, sad that the mantis is dead though. :-/

Me too, but I just keep telling myself that she would have died of old age shortly anyway.

 

[Mime454]

By the way, my tiny Wahlbergii is about the size of my thumbnail(L6) and he threatens me when I go to put food in his cage. I think it's cute and funny that he's so brave.

 

[giesle]

By the way, my tiny Wahlbergii is about the size of my thumbnail(L6) and he threatens me when I go to put food in his cage. I think it's cute and funny that he's so brave.

That's not fair. That's somewhat the same scenario I hear from all Wahlbergii owners though.

 

[patrickfraser]

So when do you get your next chameleon? You've got a stunner and they sure do love a good mantis, don't they? :lol:

 

[giesle]

So when do you get your next chameleon? You've got a stunner and they sure do love a good mantis, don't they? :lol:

I don't know. I was planning on this being my only one ever, but you know how that goes. I'm really wanting a blue one now. They sure do.....much more healthier than the normal meal of crickets.

 

[Ranitomeya]

My wahlbergii were more prone to threat displays in their earlier instars. They're actually rather skittish now that they're bigger... sometimes I even have a little difficulty getting them to eat instead of acting scared and running away at the sight of their prey.

 

[giesle]

My wahlbergii were more prone to threat displays in their earlier instars. They're actually rather skittish now that they're bigger... sometimes I even have a little difficulty getting them to eat instead of acting scared and running away at the sight of their prey.

Really? You feed them bluebottles probably, right? I had a female Orchid kind of like that, but in her early stages. I couldn't ever pick up her enclosure or she would bounce of the walls faster than you could see. Once she was adult, she chilled out though.

 

[Ranitomeya]

I've been feeding them flies and roaches. They stalked their prey and threat displayed up until their fourth or fifth instars and then their behavior changed. Now none of them are very confident in catching their prey--they'll drop, tuck in their legs, and then flip themselves everywhere during feeding time if their prey items approach them. I have pre-subadults that will cautiously take food if I paralyze them and wave them in front of them slowly before dropping it at their feet a few times. My subadults on the other hand, are rather unwilling to eat unless I sit there and very slowly drag food at their feet--anything that can move quickly sends them running. It's become a bit of a chore feeding them... I'm not quite sure why they're so skittish now that they've grown larger.

 

[giesle]

That is weird. At least I've never heard of such a thing. This Wally, I had from L2 to adult and adult for many months and she was always fine with eating and would go hunting after prey on occasion.

 

[RevWillie]

Have you tried smaller foods? Hydei instead of houseflies, houseflies insstead of bluebots, etc.. I've had several that weren't all that interested in the bigger food they 'should' be eating but they all love the smaller food, as long as it's big enough to be interesting.

 

[Rick]

Great shot. Would have been a great pic in my herpetology class when we studied this.

 

[mantid_mike]

Incredible shot. Despite the loss of the wahlbergii, I think it paid off.