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Death by mantis

Why, yes, that is a photo of a praying mantis killing and eating a humming bird. Thank you, Internet!

Carnivores gonna carnivore, right?

Apparently, they rather like bird brains, burrowing through the soft-tissue eye sockets and directly into the brain; often leaving the body for scavengers after devouring the fatty bird brains.

In general, it’s a good position to remember that you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. Until last night, I didn’t know that praying mantis eat birds (their brains in particular). And now I know.

Apparently they kill small fish, too. One story I read online was from someone who had a small pond with some guppies in it, and a praying mantis came by, observed, five nights in a row and killed/ate a couple of guppies each night.

Fish and birds, done in by a bug. A carnivorous, protein-seeking bug.

 

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