8/13/2005: Praying mantis kills hummingbird

A Saturday special? I guess. Boing Boing finds this item from Birdwatchers Digest, in which this gruesome scene is captured. West Chester PA native Richard Walkup describes it thusly:

As you can see from the photographs this hungry mantis captured and killed a hummingbird not much smaller than itself. The mantis used its spiny left foreleg to impale the hummingbird through the chest while leaving his right leg free.

We surmised that the mantis ran the hummer through and dangled its full weight on its foreleg while he consumed the flesh of the hummingbird from the abdomen. After he had his fill, the mantis gave his foreleg several swift jerks and freed his leg.

Ew. But totally amazing.

Wow. Breast of hummingbird? That's probably a pretty rare delicacy, even in the insect world.

West Chester is a much tougher town than people realize.

I've been seeing a lot more hummingbirds here in Atlanta where I am staying to look after my parents. The other day I was sitting at my desk and one landed on a branch outside the window to take a break. Seems like you rarely see one sit still for very long. He ket bobbing his head back and forth while he rested as if he couldn't stand to be perfectly still. Then he flew off in search of more flowers.

Today a hummingbird, tomorrow . . .THE WORLD!!

Would that be a Smorgasbird?

sorry

Zorak!

Damn...that's pretty damn ninja. I never knew mantises had realultimatepower!

Why do you think those ancient Kung Fu guys copied their moves?

That's incredible. 1- That a Mantis can do that. 2- That it ate it's fill and threw the rest away.

did you know that if you fold your arms into a mantis like pose, and sway side to side in front of a mantis, it will attempt to attack you? no shit. try it next time you see one. it's fucking awesome. i saw a guy do it at work once. it flew right at him. he was just fucking around imitating it. he spazzed like a little girl.

Sure is a charismatic little fella - the way he pulls the birds...

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Originally Posted by Brianna Girl, you crack my shizzle UP!

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Originally Posted by Cyclefrance Sure is a charismatic little fella - the way he pulls the birds...

Yuck I hate those things, I'd have to squish it and save the bird.

Holy crap! My wife and kids were holding one of these things Saturday night! Has anyone every picked one of these things up? These are the one of the most intimidating insects you'll ever run across. It's head and bodies will weave and bob and turn it's head while it tracks your movements around it. Thing looks like it could f*** you up if your not careful.

praying mantis = faith-based predator or is that preying mantis?

i do believe the Praying Mantis is the Connecticut state bug

When I was in kindergarten I brought a praying mantis and a grasshopper to show and tell. When I opened it, I had a praying mantis and some grasshopper wings.

I bet you cried

Despite what we've been told all our lives, apparently it's not illegal to kill them.

Yeah, and he cried

It wasn't show and tell for me, but we used to get a mayonnaise jar and poke some holes in the lid. Then the bug safari would begin! We'd catch all kinds of bugs and put them in the jar together. It was a tiny bug-star cage match. We put in ants and earwigs and june bugs and butterflies and grasshoppers and worms and bees and spiders one on one.

The BEST match of all time was the [announcer voice] in this corner, wearing the green trunks, crawling in at four inches long, with a 1 1/2 reach and hooked claws, PRAAAAAAYING MAAAAAAAAATIS! His opponent, in the yellow and black trunks, an acrobatic flyer with a poisonous sting, YELLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOW JAAAAAAAAAAAAACKET!! Death Match.[/announcer] Putting them both in and shaking the jar really good probably hurt the praying mantis more than the yellow jacket, but it was no match really.

Evil flying villian with a poisonous ass notwithstanding, it's a praying mantis' world, baby. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, snatch, bite, dingdingding. The winnah and still champeeeen! The Mantis!!!!

Oh my god, those poor little critters. The spiders must have had a field day eating anything they desired, and silver service also.

Hey BigV, did you also light your Matchbox cars on fire, pretending they crashed? If so you coulda hung out with my big brother.

Fire was a pretty big NO-NO! This lesson was very effectively reinforced with pain on my backside, so, I had to imagine that part. But we crashed the Hot Wheels (Matchbox sucked) *all* the time. We flew them down the stairs, loop the loop, hurtled them across the kitchen floor to wedge tightly under the fridge, where they could only be freed with the butterknife-of-life. The pets never took much notice of them though. The cats would screech (sometimes) and leap out of the way and the dog was smart enough to recognize that the sound of the cars in the big round tire shaped carrier meant that it was time to go outside and lie in the grass. Booorrrring.

Some have said that the mantis will spit in your eye and blind you. I saw a guy try to prove that wrong by putting his smartass eye less than an inch from the insect, holding it wide open in defiance.

The mantis popped the shit outa his eyeball. Eye swelled shut for two days. Bob doesn't do that anymore.

How I never got caught playing with fire I'll never know. We were pretty careful except this one time...

Hmm. that's another thread.

So. Who would catch fire flies, tear off their 'fire' and wear it as jewelry?

We caught lightning bugs too. In jars we collected them, but always intact. I don't remember taking them apart, to use as jewelry or as bait or as anything else.

my hubby and his cousins would paint with their luminescence - on the sidewalk, themselves, each other..........

my dad would bring home liquid nitrogen from work accasionally - I'd freeze flowers and leaves and then - CRACK! - break them on the porch.......my brother however would try things like lizards........to this day I have nightmares of poor little lizards shattering in a million pieces.........

Or the rolling stones,

...sha doobie, I've been shattered...

I read about "tracer boogers" where you stick fire flies up your nose and then forcefully expell them, giving the effect of a tracer round I suppose.

The fire thread will start tonight if the inchinchinch goes to sleep at a reasonable hour and SWMBO doesn't have a plethora of things for me to do.

In other words, don't hop up and down on one leg and hold your breath.

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Originally Posted by Hobbs And once you were done with them you'd put them back together...right? A needle and thread, a little Bactine, kisses for love and you'd send them on their way...right?

LUCY!! You were a bag lady?

LOL! I hadn't thought of it that way, but yeah! I guess I was. LOL!

Snapping turtles get damned heavy too.

did you also light your Matchbox cars on fire, pretending they crashed?

No No No , You are suposed to save a few bottle rockets from the 4th , you break off the sticks and tape them to the cars , 3-4 works best , the hard part is getting them to all go off at the same time , smothe concreete is best , when it works it is KILLER , WHOOOSH !!!! BAM !!!!!! then smoldering wreckage , ahhh to be a kid again !!!!!!!

In Okanowa JP, we used to catch these BIG ass Preying Mantisis and the BIG ass banna spyders , put them in a shoe box and watch them fight , the Mantis ALWAYS won !!!!!!!!

Zippyt, when were you in Okinawa? My husband spent several years there.

84 I think

Huh... He was there from around 82-84 I think. In some school for American kids, but I can't remember the name.

xoB sends this along. And elspode had it in his FB feed too. which reminded me to post it here and resurrect an old IotD.

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Originally Posted by wolf West Chester is a much tougher town than people realize.

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Originally Posted by barefoot serpent praying mantis = faith-based predator or is that preying mantis?