Feb 5, 2010

Cricket Bottoms Up

This mantis looks almost coy, almost playful, with her head tilted and her antennae curled, as she devours the cricket. But really, does she need to eat it from the bottom up?I'm sure it's wishing that she'd start with its head first.

If I were taken down by a lion, I assume that it would at least have the courtesy of killing me before it began to eat me. Like me, I doubt this cricket wants to experience being eaten. But do mantises even eat the head? Maybe all the good stuff is in the abdomen and thorax, and the head is nothing by a jumble of chitin and mandibles. Or, is she saving the head for later, the best for last? Something with which to cleanse her mantoid palette?

Photo source: Rob

5 comments:

Sabina E. said...

that made me hungry.

Angela said...

Can bugs feel pain? I'm sure there is a multi-million dollar study somewhere to tell me if it's so.

the ginabean said...

yikes

Ed said...

They usually do eat the head pretty quickly, as the prey doesn't die (stop struggling) until an essential organ is removed.

Kmantis said...

I thing the Praying Mantis is trying to eat a fresh cricket so she keep alive the food until the end... lol