Praying mantises, with their distinctive posture that resembles hands clasped in prayer, are formidable predators. These carnivores play a significant role in various ecosystems worldwide. Their predatory nature allows them to control insect populations, making them a subject of interest for natural pest control.
Mainstay of Their Diet
The diet of praying mantises consists almost entirely of live insects, establishing them as carnivores that require a protein-rich diet. They are generalist predators, consuming a wide variety of available prey rather than specializing, including flies, moths, crickets, grasshoppers, and beetles. Smaller species and young mantises also target aphids, caterpillars, and mosquitoes. Praying mantises prefer live, moving prey and are not typically scavengers. Their diverse appetite extends to both common garden pests and beneficial insects alike, such as butterflies and bees, highlighting their role in influencing insect populations within their habitats.
Surprising Prey and Cannibalism
While insects form the primary diet, larger praying mantis species can occasionally prey on small vertebrates, a less common but observed behavior. These surprising meals can include small frogs, lizards, rodents, and even small birds like hummingbirds, demonstrating their predatory capabilities beyond typical invertebrate prey.
Cannibalism is another notable aspect of praying mantis behavior, particularly among females. Females sometimes consume males during or after mating, a behavior known as sexual cannibalism. This act may provide the female with crucial nutrients, especially protein, which can enhance her survival and increase the number of eggs she produces. While often sensationalized, sexual cannibalism in the wild occurs in less than 30% of mating encounters.
How They Hunt Their Meals
Praying mantises are ambush predators, relying on stealth and camouflage to capture meals. They blend seamlessly with surroundings, mimicking leaves, twigs, or flowers to remain undetected by prey. Once within striking distance, they unleash lightning-fast, spiny raptorial forelegs to seize and hold prey. This strike occurs in milliseconds.
Their hunting prowess is aided by exceptional vision and unique head mobility. Large compound eyes provide a wide field of vision and stereoscopic sight, enabling accurate distance judgment. They are also the only insects capable of rotating their triangular heads nearly 180 degrees without moving their bodies, allowing them to scan their environment for targets.
Dietary Changes Through Life Stages
A praying mantis’s diet adapts through its life stages. Newly hatched nymphs are very small and begin their carnivorous diet by preying on tiny insects like fruit flies, aphids, or micro crickets. These young nymphs are voracious eaters, requiring frequent meals for rapid growth.
As mantises progress through molts, shedding their exoskeletons to accommodate increasing size, their diet expands to include larger and more diverse prey. An older nymph can tackle green or blue bottle flies, small grasshoppers, and small roaches. This dietary progression ensures their food intake scales with body size.