My Mantid got eaten!!!!

[duncan27]

Ok well I raised this little guy from an ooth. Gave many of his brethren to friends after many good times and achieving the last molt I thought it would be nice to let him live out his remaining days in freedom in a bush just outside my place. There were always plenty of moths and butterflies in it so I thought food would not be an issue. I got the ooth from a local garden store so I knew he would be fine in this climate and so I didn't worry.

Well it was about 9pm (dark which is why I missed the monster in waiting) and I found a nice place to let him go. Watched him for a minute and then thought, it would be nice to take some pics. In the minutes it took me to run up to my room and get back I found the horror. There was a HUGE Lynx spider taking residence about 10 inches from where I let my little guy go. He must have climbed up a little bit and got pounced on.

Well I thought I have my camera, might as well take some pics.

 

[arachnocat]

Sorry about your mantis
Those are really cool pictures though!

 

[White Widow]

Lollll I'm sorry.

 

[duncan27]

yeah I couldn't believe it. part of me was pissed and the other was like "wow this is cool".

had a friend who was against keeping animals saying it was cruel and such. Well I had to tell him that mantid lived well for 7 months, fed regularly, good housing conditions, allowed to run around the room almost daily (supervised). But once let free only lived for 5 minutes. You do the math.

Got 2 right now, got 1 from the LA Bug Expo and just found 1 in the yard, probably from an ooth I put in the backyard about a year ago. I would guess it probably has 1 maybe 2 more molts to go.

 

[Widowman10]

haha, sorry bout that, but it is kinda funny...

 

[anaconda19]

unlucky

that sux but look on the bright side, you can go out and get another ooth now and grow some more mantids.

ive never seen a spider like that before, green! i was looking wonderign for like five mins what you were talking about then i finally saw the spider right in front of me lol....

 

[duncan27]

Lynx spider. they are neat spiders. I have kept a couple. Hunters, kinda like a wolf spider, but in the bushes.