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A sad photo

  • Thread starter b.t.
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    vft
I'm normally happy to see my VFT catching things but I did feel quite sad to see it catch this:

1.jpg


2.jpg


Ah well, one mantis after a year is not so bad I guess...
 
Looks like he's just barely caught, maybe you can free him...???
 
It looks like he is still alive...as yaric said, perhaps you could free him?
 
its an adult too, holy crap! what sp. other mantis lovers?
 
Oh man! I would free that thing in a heartbeat! I'm not sure what species it is but its definetly an adult.
 
Just leave it be.

In all probability you'll end up tearing or cutting the leaf to get it open. If you manage to release the insect without inadvertently killing it yourself it has probably suffered enough internal injuries that it will soon afterwards anyway.
 
how can you tell its an adult?
it cant be more than 1 inch long..

I would just gently open the trap to let it go..
should be easy to pry the trap apart without harming the mantis..

Scot
 
how can you tell its an adult?
it cant be more than 1 inch long..

Its got wings on its back. Thats what all adults get.
 
  • #10
Sucks to be him/her.

I say let nature take its course...

"Ya live by the trap, ya die by the trap." ;)
 
  • #11
Agreed... let nature take its course.
 
  • #12
I wouldn't worry about it. There are a trillion more out there. It's nature.
 
  • #13
Nice catch for the VFT.

Yes, Maxx is correct... the mantis is an adult. B.T., are you located in the US? If so, it's probably one of the more rarer species.
 
  • #14
Rare plant kills rare animal. What a twist of fate...
 
  • #16
I'm in South East Asia. Although having said that, I still rarely see a mantis. Maybe 5 times in my life of 27 years...

But then again maybe I'm just not looking for them in the right places that they are to be found!

My pops told me to let nature take its course and not pull it out of the trap. I felt like telling him, in the nature takes its course way, nature would never see a VFT growing in South East Asia... but that's another topic.

I came home today and the mantis arms were limp. I think he's gone home...
 
  • #17
I'll try to get an ID on the mantis. I'll post an "edit" here if I am able to obtain one.


EDIT: Okay, here goes... It is possibly a Tropidomantis (Eomantis) sp..
Picture for comparison.... (Female on the left, male on the right).
 
  • #18
its a pretty mantis...but yes as was stated a mantid is an adult when it has fully developed wings. Males have a tendency to fly more than females as they are lighter.
 
  • #19
Even If its dead I would pull it out. Sometimes, when VFTs catch prey that is partially outside of the trap, the prey breaks down and rots on the outside and causes the trap to blacken. I have noticed that this is the case when they catch large insects.
 
  • #20
There's no way it would survive, even if you freed it the second you found it.

The trap is all sealed up and it's probably lost many organs. If it did survive, it would be extremely tired and handicapped, it would quickly starve or be eaten by a faster predator or another mantis. Maybe if you wanted to save the trap a bit of trouble you could pull it out but the mantis wouldn't survive.

If you keep carnivorous plants you can't honestly be sad when it kills a normal prey item, no matter how big an insect it is. That's what they do.
 
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