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Comment by tfha | Hacker News Reader

Maybe first time in the wild, bit we've known they eat fish for a long time. The above is a video of one catching and eating a fish, posted to YouTube 10 years ago.

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Yes, and it is noted in the article: Praying mantises have occasionally been observed to feed on vertebrates, including small birds, lizards, frogs, newts, mice, snakes and turtles.

But many of these cases have either not been scientifically validated or have occurred under human-manipulated circumstances. And there is no previous scientific data of mantises preying on fish.

I don't understand what they mean for it to be "scientifically observed".

I wonder what reaction the authors would get if the paper they submitted was entirely based on watching Youtube?

I think the "preying on fish" part is key here not "scientifically observed." A captive mantis eating a fish placed in front of it is different from a wild mantis specifically hunting fish.

Perhaps merely “in a reproducable fashion”.

Well, the youtube video clearly"occurred under human-manipulated circumstances".

That probably just means observed by a scientist. If I report seeing a praying mantis eat a fish, that's not as reliable as if I have a video or if a trained scientist makes the same report.

Disturbing that it does not kill its prey first.

Insects tend to be like that; they just start eating.

Often though they tend to target the head or neck for their first bites, I think with the intent that biting there will make the meal stop struggling[1]. Not all the time though, sometimes they grab the prey and just start chowing down, butt first :P

[1] I had an African flower mantis as a pet ;)

How'd your mantis do with human interaction? I've been fascinated with them since I met one outside a couple weeks ago. They seem like they could do some real damage if they wanted to but all the reading I've done it seems like they're pretty tolerant of being handled and rarely/never bite.

> They seem like they could do some real damage if they wanted to

A mantis could do real damage to a human?

I have had this memory from some time ago about a scene from a podcast. Scientists in a lab are trying to wrangle an insect (which I remember to be a mantis of some kind) with a glass rod. The insect bites the rod with such force that it snaps and the arc of the motion lacerates the bugs middle (thorax?). From the cut fat begins to come out. Instictually the bug begins to eat it's own fat while dying.

I wish I could remember or find the podcast. I feel like it was radio lab, but can't find it.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/185551-killer-empathy/

The largest species can draw blood and might if they thought your wiggling finger were a flying insect. I don't know of any cases where a mantis did "real damage" to a human.

Some can be quite shy, but generally they are content to be handled and carried. They are a lot of fun as a pet.

Mine was in captivity since a child, so I don't think it ever developed the skills to fly. But sometimes when I would handle it, it would open and reveal it's eye-spotted wings; maybe because it thought I was a threat, or maybe just to impress me :P. When it was close to dying, it's behavior became erratic and it would fall over and not really be in control of itself. It did clamp onto my finger and take some nibbles in its near death state of confusion, but the spines nor bites could Pierce the skin. I barely felt it.

TL;DR = mine handled fine and possibly enjoyed the excitement of adventuring up my arm. Never any naughty behavior until senility set in.

They don't learn to fly, they just have that ability after their wings are developed. It's just that they don't fly often (in captivity or the wild).

Also, my experience with the order in which they eat their prey is different from yours. Mine would eat fruit flies ass-first and would tear the wings off moths, both while the prey were alive.

> [1] I had an African flower mantis as a pet ;)

types—this—into—google—images What the..! This kind (flower mantices) really looks incredible!

Clicky: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=African+flower+mant...

It's not like it had sex with it before or anything /s

It's a lot more common in the wild than one thinks. Lions, tigers, wild dogs, alligators, fish, sharks, baboons, birds, hyenas, worms, bears, etc all eat animals that are still alive from time to time. Animals want to conserve as much enery as they can. As long as the prey is debilitated or not attracting other bigger predators, they'll eat it even if it is alive. Nature is really brutal when you get down to it.

So do humans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_animals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_seafood

Why doesn't the fish wriggle? The fish looks much stronger than the insect.

What's the idiom... Like being nudged towards eating fish in a barrel.

I'm fascinated by the choice of soundtrack on this video.

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