And then there were three

I started out with about 30 mantids. I sold quite a number of them, lost a few to actual deaths (as opposed to a lot of just playing dead).  The number one killer of mantids seems to be molting accidents.  Molting is the process of shedding the exoskeleton so they can grow. This is a really vulnerable time for them, definitely a time when they could be eaten by predators out in the real world.  In my house I lost a few because I just wasn't paying attention when I picked up their containers to feed them, and disturbing a molting mantis will usually result in it falling. Having hit the ground, it's exoskeleton will harden into a position not conducive to continued existence.  Poor Rambo though, so named because he had already survived a number of difficult mantis-life experiences (including three days wandering my house on his own), simply chose a poor location to molt.  He was too near the ground and so as he shed his skin, hanging upside down as they do, he hit the dirt in the bottom of his container before be managed to completely shed his skin.  This mangled his poor head and body, and I put him in the freezer to end his suffering.

Rest in peace (or pieces?) poor Rambo.  Note the old exoskeleton still clinging to the bottom of his body.

The three that are left, Stripey, CrazyPants and No-Name, are living a charmed existence, and are ridiculously entertaining. These tiny cats love to groom themselves and love to sit on people.  As soon as they see me, I swear, they just want out so they can inhabit my person.  They really are keen on people. You wouldn't think an insect brain would even note the existence of people.  Certainly my tarantulas do not consider me to be of the same universe as they are.  But the mantids clearly enjoy my company - see accompanying images!

"I'm so tired from eating that yummy maggot, mind if I just use your hand as a lawn chair for awhile?  By the way, you should clean your fingernails!"

"While I am here, I may as well clean up the maggot-related toe-jam."

Praying Mantis Playing Dead

One of my mantids suddenly died.  It was a shocking situation, I barely touched the poor dude, and he just keeled over and was no more.  I couldn't figure out how this possibly could have killed him, but after poking at him a bit to confirm he really was gone, I put him aside to deal with later (does this remind of you of the drowned ant story?).  About 15 minutes later, he was not so dead.  So I looked up praying mantis playing dead on google.  I found one site with photos of a much large mantis playing dead and then looking quite alive, here:
http://www.drybrushwet.com/nature/praying-mantis-playing-dead/

and a very obscure reference, reference to a reference really, in the book

The Optical Unconscious

By Rosalind E. Krauss,

Krauss refers to writing by Roger Calloisa, French intellectual writer, who remarked that the mantis was capable of feigning death even when decapitated, and therefore, essentially dead.  Being able to pretend to be dead when you are, kind of already dead, is quite a feat indeed.  

I didn't try decapitating any of my mantids to test this out, but I did manage to get a very obvious playing dead and reawakening video, which is above, I apologize for the quality of the video, I will try to improve on it later.  I am really falling for these insects that are such incredible characters.  More to follow on the wonders of the praying mantis.

Me vs. Praying Mantids

There are martial arts moves that were modeled after the moves that a praying mantis makes.  The story goes that a monk named Wang Lung was bothered by the sound of a mantis striking a cricket.  He then observed the mantis (and had a little fight with him) and subsequently developed some pretty nasty moves. The mantis is a master at combat apparently.

A couple of guys named Sam and Si produced a video measuring the strike time for a praying mantis vs. the strike time for a human.  They filmed a few different species of praying mantids striking at prey and then calculated the number of seconds it took.  Here are the results:

Polyspilota griffinii - 0.039 sec
Alalomantis muta - 0.057 sec
Phyllocrania paradoxa - 0.027 sec

Then they tried a young, fit human striking with a similar pose.  His time was .0805, much slower.

You can see the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cch4aE3Oon0

Run!!!

What are you looking at?

This explains the difficultly I have been having in caring for 30 baby mantids that recently hatched in my house.  They are each separated into their own Safeway deli containers.  Each day I have to pry off the lid, making a careful note of where the mantis is in the container, usually upside down on the lid, and get a couple of fruit flies in there, and a small spritz of water, and get the container closed again before the mantis either runs up my arm or jumps to potential freedom and makes off down the hallway.  They are only about centimeter long right now, but they seem to be able to jump straight up at least a foot.  And the second they sense the container is open, they start trying to escape.  Of course, so do the fruit flies.  The fruit flies have the advantage that I care more about the mantids escaping then I do about them escaping.  After all, there are a few stray spiders around that can take care of the fruit flies later.

I can attest to what the youtube video addresses, the mantids are faster than I am (and possibly smarter too).