peacock mantis

[chameloman72]

UNNNNBELIEVABLE!! My adult peacock has been residing with three damsels for about a month now. I have seen the biggest damsel stick his head in her burrow without consiquence. Today however, she came flying out of her burrow and grabbed the biggest damsel out of the middle of the tank!!! I knew she was pretty fast BUT NOT THAT FAST!!!! I only caught a glimpse of the action and it was over and she had the damsel in her burrow literally about 1 second later!!! "TINK,TINK,TINK" now he is lunch!!
I have had my hand in there cleaning the tank and I have had some close calls, I now realize if she really wanted to she could have hit me on every occasion if she wanted to!! I don't know if I want to stick my hands in there anymore after witnessing what I just saw!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! The damsel was on the other side of the tank towards the top nowhere near her burrow!!!

 

[TMPoften]

damn... too bad you didnt have a video camera up. Was she well fed or did she do that out of hunger?

 

[chameloman72]

She is spoiled!! I work at an lfs and bring food home all the time!! She just did it to do it I guess?? There was no getting it on film or camera, it was over before I could even pick up the camera!!

 

[Thurge]

OOOrrrr maybe it was ment as a warning.
She could have been trying to say "Next time its your hand, buddy!!! Now bring me a crab."

 

[chameloman72]

LMAO !!!!!

 

[Gonodactylus]

Odontodactylids are probably the fastest of all stomatopods. I have a student looking at escape velocities in O. havanensis and he is finding speeds of around 25 body lengths per second. This puts them in the same league as squid - some of the fastest animals in water.

Roy