Taking the picture must have spooked it, cuz the next thing I know, I’m on my back…

Judo flip!

  • chepox@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    These things behave really strangely as compared to other bugs. I found one on my yard the other day and as I walked by, I saw it was following me with its head. I went back and forth to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. Nope it was intensely looking at me. So I thought… Perhaps it’s just assessing a predator and keeping it in sight is a useful survival instinct. Then the mofo jumped at my face. Calculated jump and attack. I grabbed it and put it in a turned over glass and it was pissed at me and continued to stare me down. I had some friends over and they looked into the glass too but nah thing wasn’t looking at them. It was looking at me and it looked pissed. I fed her a moth that was flying around by putting it inside the glass with it thinking… Its not going to attack the moth, mantis is probably terrified. Not a time to eat. So I thought. Damn thing proceeded to eat the head of the moth while it kept looking at me in disdain. I had to let the thing go. It was too sentient to be squashed as a bug. So I freed it later that night and made sure I closed the garden door behind me. I don’t want that thing strangling me in my sleep.

  • nickelfish@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lol, the antennae make it look like he whipped his head over just before he jumped you. Beautiful male Chinese mantis

  • ToRA@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I recently learned that the closest relatives to mantids are cockroaches and termites, and they have 3 more eyes on top of their heads between their antennae.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      From a very nineties horror flick ‘bordello of blood’:

      ‘I love a man that gives me head and let’s me keep it’