Everybody's Eating Everybody These Days Part II

Well, eventually we were down to one mantis. One fat female with, presumably all the other females from our tiny garden inside her (I counted five total at one point), plus all the spiders she could find, plus assorted bees and butterflies and flies &c &c &c. What else could a voracious predator crave...............

....................a mate!

Here are the two hapless males who showed up one afternoon. They were literally crawling over each other to get the girl:




Now, you read about these things and think, oh, the life of a male mantis is, well, kinda brutal. But fair, I guess, I mean in a natural sort of way, right? Maybe it's a way for the female mantis to ensure that only she gets to pass on the male genetic load, something like that....Sucky, but then you move on.

Somehow the reality was a little more, well, visceral. I never saw the other male again......




Here's the last bits of her meal, er, mate. The head and feet are gone, just sticks and chips left:





At least nothing goes to waste. High-maintenance girl, high protein boy.......