Occurred on September, 2020 / Germany

Info from Licensor: "There are few groups of insects that are noticed by large audiences around the world, and these certainly include the terrors. Praying mantises are skilled hunters and true eating machines. They are perfectly camouflaged, but many species reach a considerable size (the females of this species can reach over 8 cm) and therefore very conspicuous. And then there is their fascinating behavior…

I've been observing animals all my life.
I know the behavior of animals, how, and where they live. In summer 2020 I worked intensively on the film documentation of the European praying mantis.

“Mantis religiosa” is the scientific name of the European praying mantis. As a heat-loving fishing insect, it prefers the climatically favorable locations in southern Europe, but during the warm summers of recent years it has migrated far north and this year has also reached my place of residence on the edge of the landscape Eifel§ in the western part of Germany.

Praying mantises are fascinating and extremely efficient predators. With their thorn-studded tentacles, they strike at lightning speed and give their prey little chance. They are best known for the fact that the larger females occasionally eat the males after mating. A behavior that appears cruel and at the same time interesting to humans, which evolutionarily serves to supply females with abundant proteins before they lay eggs and to ensure the reproduction of the species.

My pictures were taken in my own garden behind my house in the Eifel in Germany. I was able to capture many interesting behaviors in the video:
When praying mantises move, they do so by rocking back and forth, imitating leaves that are moved by the wind. They are eye animals that locate their prey exclusively with the two complex eyes.

Praying mantises usually stay in one place and wait for prey. If these come within range, they strike in a split second and the victims are inescapably trapped between the thorns of the thighs and the rails
of the robbery legs.

They immediately begin to eat the prey alive. This can easily reach the body size of its predator and large butterflies, grasshoppers, and also vertebrates (e.g. young lizards) are occasionally included.

On a beautiful late summer's day, I filmed a female praying mantis approaching a wasteland insect and was able to document the catch and the subsequent eating. At that time there were also many wasps in my garden. When the mantis had already eaten about half of the grasshopper, a wasp kept approaching and wanted to get their part of the meal.

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