A friend said he found this gem while randomly searching the internet, although I'm suspicious of a search that includes the terms "eating hummer" but what can ya do?
Yeah, but it's so much cooler to think that an epic mini-battle took place in which the life of another was snuffed out, whether in fear or a maniacal rage, all in your back yard.
If you look carefully, you will notice that the mantis was hanging out by the spot that the bird was feeding from, some flowers. It seems to me that the mantis struck and killed the bird in midair. Probably a fatal blow to its chest.
Oh they are, they most definitaly are. They're not even afraid of humans. You could pick one up and it would just look at you and decide if your edible or not.
Back in 1982, we had one on the back of our stereo speaker. Was about 4-5 inches in size. Scary bugger. We also have one in our Nature Museum here in town but it's about 4 feet in size. Fake, but it's still a scary bug.
Tricord wrote:Where does one live, to have that kind of fauna in one's garden? Never seen such a big green .. carnivorous whatever..
According to the Wikipedia, the European pryaing mantis is common over much of southern Europe and was introduced to the US in the early 1900s as a way of controlling garden pests. They're fairly common in the northeast US; we get them in our garden every once in a while. They're definitely cool bugs, and very large as well. We find nests once in a while in our Christmas trees (luckily, they've all turned out to be empty ). I never pictured them going after something as big as a hummingbird, though.
I've seen/held them all my life, and they don't weigh as much as a small bird, nor are they strong enough to 'impale' a bird in midair. I'd be highly suspicious of that story (Can't read it, no DNS)
punisher wrote:I've caught em lots of times. I doubt they could rip a hummingbird open like that. Although, this one time I saw one blow off a Mexican's leg.
I love the praying mantis. It's like a freakin nature show in front of my house. The other day I was out watering ze ol' garden and there's a cat chilling under my bush laying on its back pawing stuff. There is a *massive* spider that has a giant web strung between two bushes and a little paying mantis dangling from the bush.
JMEaT wrote:I love the praying mantis. It's like a freakin nature show in front of my house. The other day I was out watering ze ol' garden and there's a cat chilling under my bush laying on its back pawing stuff. There is a *massive* spider that has a giant web strung between two bushes and a little paying mantis dangling from the bush.
). I never pictured them going after something as big as a hummingbird, though.
