Praying mantis catches and eats hummingbird (!!)

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Some praying mantis and hummingbird pics have been posted to these
newsgroups lately; well, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of
all praying mantis and hummingbird pics!

I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
Jesus!

I may even be more disturbed than I felt on that occasion I watched an
ocean documentary that had a scene of a giant deep water octopus
catching and eating a huge vicious shark! An Invertebrate catching and
eating a humongous friggin shark?! - whooaaaa!!

The chutzpah! No, seriously, the chutzpah! Have they no respect?!

What next? are we next? what lowly creature is going to dare his luck
upon us? Am I next? Am I going to be consumed by a 6' slug?

Ah so Kafkaesque! My stomach is turning! Photos here...

http://tinyurl.com/8nxtm

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

<casioculture@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1123910711.456307.194380@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> Some praying mantis and hummingbird pics have been posted to these
> newsgroups lately; well, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of
> all praying mantis and hummingbird pics!
>
> I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
> Jesus!
>
> I may even be more disturbed than I felt on that occasion I watched an
> ocean documentary that had a scene of a giant deep water octopus
> catching and eating a huge vicious shark! An Invertebrate catching and
> eating a humongous friggin shark?! - whooaaaa!!
>
> The chutzpah! No, seriously, the chutzpah! Have they no respect?!
>
> What next? are we next? what lowly creature is going to dare his luck
> upon us? Am I next? Am I going to be consumed by a 6' slug?
>
> Ah so Kafkaesque! My stomach is turning! Photos here...
>
> http://tinyurl.com/8nxtm
>
There are mantises in the rain forest that are a foot long.....If you couple
that fact with those pictures, it can give you nightmares........

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

casioculture@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Some praying mantis and hummingbird pics have been posted to these
> newsgroups lately; well, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of
> all praying mantis and hummingbird pics!
>
> I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
> Jesus!
>
> I may even be more disturbed than I felt on that occasion I watched an
> ocean documentary that had a scene of a giant deep water octopus
> catching and eating a huge vicious shark! An Invertebrate catching and
> eating a humongous friggin shark?! - whooaaaa!!
>
> The chutzpah! No, seriously, the chutzpah! Have they no respect?!
>
> What next? are we next? what lowly creature is going to dare his luck
> upon us? Am I next? Am I going to be consumed by a 6' slug?
>
> Ah so Kafkaesque! My stomach is turning! Photos here...
>
> http://tinyurl.com/8nxtm

funnily enough apparently it isn't unknown, just look for predators
here

http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/1601
--
Paul (And I'm, like, "yeah, whatever!" )
-------------------------------------------------------
Stop and Look
http://www.geocities.com/dreamst8me/

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

<casioculture@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1123910711.456307.194380@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> Some praying mantis and hummingbird pics have been posted to these
> newsgroups lately; well, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of
> all praying mantis and hummingbird pics!
>
> I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
> Jesus!
>
> I may even be more disturbed than I felt on that occasion I watched an
> ocean documentary that had a scene of a giant deep water octopus
> catching and eating a huge vicious shark! An Invertebrate catching and
> eating a humongous friggin shark?! - whooaaaa!!
>
> The chutzpah! No, seriously, the chutzpah! Have they no respect?!
>
> What next? are we next? what lowly creature is going to dare his luck
> upon us? Am I next? Am I going to be consumed by a 6' slug?
>
> Ah so Kafkaesque! My stomach is turning! Photos here...
>
> http://tinyurl.com/8nxtm

That reminds me of the huge spiders in the jungles of Colombia (S. America)
where I grew up.
These nasty whopper spiders (not tarantulas, either, but big HUGE
spiders)...that would build massive webs accross narrow streams, and
actually catch small FISH in the web-net as they jumped.
Amazing.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Deedee Tee wrote:
> On 12 Aug 2005 22:25:11 -0700, casioculture@gmail.com wrote:
>
> >I may even be more disturbed than I felt on that occasion I watched an
> >ocean documentary that had a scene of a giant deep water octopus
> >catching and eating a huge vicious shark! An Invertebrate catching and
> >eating a humongous friggin shark?! - whooaaaa!!
> >
> >The chutzpah! No, seriously, the chutzpah! Have they no respect?!
> >
> >What next? are we next? what lowly creature is going to dare his luck
> >upon us? Am I next? Am I going to be consumed by a 6' slug?
>
> How about bacteria or viruses eating you from the inside out? Is this
> gross enough? Well, it happens every day, as a matter of fact...

That would be millions, if not billions, of them, not just one. And
anyhow, it'd be invisible enough for it to be called an illness, not a
gruesome act of predation.

What I find interesting is that my disturbed reaction is not unique;
according to the accounts I linked to or pasted, one guy was too
"stunned" to take a good picture, and another was too 'disgusted' to
take any at all!


>
> The larvae of certain water bugs eat mostly tadpoles and fishes, so
> they don't respect vertebrates just because the latter are supposedly
> higher on the evolutionary scale, either. Maybe no one yet told the
> bugs. Sea anemones and certain jellyfish eat fish, so no respect for
> vertebrates here, either. Cone snails instantly kill fishes with some
> of the most effective neurotoxins around, then eat them whole. Snakes
> eat supposedly higher evolved and smarter mice and birds, and large
> snakes sometimes eat even our cousins, the monkeys. So does the
> Monkey-Eating Eagle of the Philippines. Having a higher pedigree is no
> guarantee that one will not end up on the dish of a lower organism.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

casioculture@gmail.com wrote:
> casioculture@gmail.com wrote:
> > Some praying mantis and hummingbird pics have been posted to these
> > newsgroups lately; well, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of
> > all praying mantis and hummingbird pics!
> >
> > I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
> > Jesus!
> >
> > I may even be more disturbed than I felt on that occasion I watched an
> > ocean documentary that had a scene of a giant deep water octopus
> > catching and eating a huge vicious shark! An Invertebrate catching and
> > eating a humongous friggin shark?! - whooaaaa!!
> >
> > The chutzpah! No, seriously, the chutzpah! Have they no respect?!
> >
> > What next? are we next? what lowly creature is going to dare his luck
> > upon us? Am I next? Am I going to be consumed by a 6' slug?
> >
> > Ah so Kafkaesque! My stomach is turning! Photos here...
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/8nxtm
>
> Photos from another incident
> http://www.rlephoto.com/birds/hummer01.htm
>
> Text from another incident (Google for sources of below)
> "Hummingbirds eaten by praying mantis
>
> This is not a question but more a warning. With 25 feeders in our front
> yard we attract many hummingbirds but this year we had a tragic
> experience. We found a praying mantis on the hummingbird feeder with a
> adult female bird in her claws. She was feeding on the hummingbirds'
> brains and then dropping them and waiting for another. As I know that
> mantises are very beneficial I did not kill it although I felt like it.
> We removed the offending insect and checked very carefully twice a day.
> I am tell eNature readers about this unfortunate incident so they can
> be watchful. I had never had this happen before but once was enough. If
> I had not have been so discussed (disgusted?) by the sight I would have
> taken a photograph. And "YES" it was a huge female mantis."
>

Are you horrified when you eat a chicken?

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Ken Tough" <ken@objectech.co.uk> wrote in message
news:JidREAAOfYBDFwdX@objectech.co.uk...
> casioculture@gmail.com wrote:
>
>>Some praying mantis and hummingbird pics have been posted to these
>>newsgroups lately; well, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of
>>all praying mantis and hummingbird pics!
>>
>>I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
>>Jesus!

Jesus was not eaten by a preying mantis...

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Mark² (lowest even number here) wrote:
> "Ken Tough"<snip>


> >>I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
> >>Jesus!
>
> Jesus was not eaten by a preying mantis...

Though a lot of his followers have been in the food chain for the
praying mantis, a/k/a televangelists...

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Bret Ludwig" <bretldwig@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1124488997.760987.281540@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I used to indoor target shoot with wax bullets from a heavy DA
> revolver, using shotgun primers and hard transformer potting wax mixed
> with paraffin. (I painted targets on a big slab of ballistic plexiglass
> I bought surplus.) I was outside once and saw a mantis with a
> hummingbird in just this fashion. Never mind the camera, I got my
> shootin' iron and blasted the mantis with the wax slug. I also used
> these wax slugs on dogs shitting in the yard. It did them no permanent
> injury, but left a good-size welt on their ass.
>
> Of course, mantises eating birds are part of nature. But so are humans
> who kill bugs for entertainment.
>
> I've also zapped spiders and other big bugs with megohmmeters and
> hypot testers.

Bet you pulled the wings off butterflies when you were a kid and burned ants
with a magnifying glass.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

No, butterflies were harmless and inoffensive. Moles and Cox model
airplane fuel were a heady mix, though, although the lawn suffered big
burnmarks.

Archived from groups: rec.photo.equipment.35mm,rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 14:24:43 -0700, "Mark²" <mjmorgan(lowest even number here)@cox..net> wrote:

> >>I'm so disturbed, the horror! An insect catching and eating a bird?!
> >>Jesus!
>
> Jesus was not eaten by a preying mantis...

Prove it. ;-)