This is a praying mantis eating a grasshopper. Today as I was pulling weeds in my yard, I saw three mantis', one large brown one and two medium sized green ones. I was pulling weeds around them, trying to get them to move over. After a couple of minutes I looked over to see if they had moved, and the big one was eating one of the green ones! I was really surprised as I had not expected it--I do know that they have a tendency to each other, though. Mantis' eat a lot of things, including humming birds on occasion! Praying mantis' can eat up to 16 crickets a day--so you can see they are really handy to have in the garden!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Praying Mantis
This is a praying mantis eating a grasshopper. Today as I was pulling weeds in my yard, I saw three mantis', one large brown one and two medium sized green ones. I was pulling weeds around them, trying to get them to move over. After a couple of minutes I looked over to see if they had moved, and the big one was eating one of the green ones! I was really surprised as I had not expected it--I do know that they have a tendency to each other, though. Mantis' eat a lot of things, including humming birds on occasion! Praying mantis' can eat up to 16 crickets a day--so you can see they are really handy to have in the garden!
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This reminds me of when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. As I class we had 2 preying mantis in a jar together. One day we came to class and there was only 1 in the jar but he was twice the size from the day before...he had eaten his friend!
ReplyDeleteSo is it true they change colors according to what they are next to? Like if they are near green leaves they change to the color green?
Generally, it's the female that eats the male; and usually it's just after mating. Yes, it's true that praying mantis' do change color--it helps them to be camouflaged. Mantis' can go from dark brown to bright green to nearly white, and all tints in between.
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