Mantid!

[morsla]

There's a brown praying mantis hunting on the outside of my window.

The windows are open wide, letting the night air into the house. Moths swarm on the outside of the flywire, trying to get closer to the light. The mantid is stalking along the outside of the wire mesh, circling the moths as they stop to land. They seem to know what they're up against, returning to the air whenever the hunter comes too close.

The mantid is light brown, as long as my thumb, and half the width of my little finger. It tries a few tactics as I watch, getting closer to its prey with each attempt. Straight rushes are quickly abandoned, as the moths scatter at the sudden motion. Creeping around the moths meets a little more success, but they are can still see the mantid behind them. It's become more subtle, wandering past the moths and freezing in place. After a few seconds, it darts towards them again...

It hasn't caught anything yet, but it's obviously patient and prepared to adapt as it goes. It sets an example I'm happy to learn from...

Comments

[designadrug.livejournal.com]

Did watching its movements teach you anything about your kung-fu?

[hespa.livejournal.com]

I had a little brown jumping spider on my window ledge a while back. Didn't notice it at first: I was watching a blowfly drift around the window when it suddenly appeared to divebomb the windowledge very fast and stop there, still head-first, buzzing frantically. The spider must have jumped up and grabbed it, pulling it our of the air, and proceeded to hang on to its head. The fly was literally twice the spider's size and desperately trying to get free, and there was nothing the spider could do without letting go of its prey, so I watched it hang on to that fly for some ten or fifteen minutes before the fly finally succumbed to exhaustion or venom and stopped moving.

Rather a different lesson in patience. "Hang in there", indeed.