Mantis Munching on Dubia

Howdy All,

As my wife and I drove away from a birthday party late last night, she exclaimed that there's a giant ant on the windshield! . I pulled over and scooped him into a large cup. We had a nice photo session today for which I rewarded him with a couple of my hand-raised blaptica dubia feeder insects. It only took him a handful of minutes to devour these young 1/2" feeders (an hour apart). There wasn't a trace of either Dubia left after he was finished munching . I'll be re-homing him soon with a friend that raises mantids. In the meantime, he's got a nice screened enclosure with a live plant to hang-out on.

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Wow, amazing series!

Wonderful series- a bit much before breakfast though
Brian v.

SPECTACULAR ~~~~~~~~~~~ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now back to my Chinese dinner.

That an huge ant

nice lunch action sequence

Your light could have a bit of improvement but the detail and compositions are good.

lovely series

Howdy All,

Thanks for the comments . I found out he is a she .

Yep. I was struggling with my lighting for these shots

Great series of photos. I think it's awesome how they always seem to eat the head first.
I was going to comment that your "he" is a "she" but you beat me to it.

Just curious, what do you feed the Dub's to? I raise Dubia and Madagascar Hissers for my various lizards.

-Brandon

awesome

Lovely captures.

mcmurray wrote in post #16300780
Great series of photos. I think it's awesome how they always seem to eat the head first.
I was going to comment that your "he" is a "she" but you beat me to it.

Just curious, what do you feed the Dub's to? I raise Dubia and Madagascar Hissers for my various lizards.

-Brandon

Howdy Brandon,

After about 10 years of keeping reptiles, of which 8 years was concentrating my efforts on chameleons (co-founded the South Bay Chameleon Keepers Group), my wife made me give-up reptile keeping as they slowly "aged-out." I still have a leopard gecko that I adopted about 10 years ago. Fortunately, the leopard loves Dubias so I'm allowed to keep a colony of them .

Nice set, especially the final portrait.

Guarantee the mandibles of the praying mantid are what inspired the movie, Predator, with Arnold

In the middle of my breakfast during this viewing! Fabulous shots, Dave.

That is amazing how you were able to capture it feeding! Great Job.

Howdy All,

Thanks everybody for the comments

WyotechEagle wrote in post #16305658
That is amazing how you were able to capture it feeding! Great Job.

Howdy,

I used tweezers to hold the Dubia close enough for her to snatch it and she did. She wasn't very camera-shy either. I was able to get pretty close without much reaction; just an occasional wink .