Abstract

The predatory behavior of mantids has received much attention over the past several decades, including studies on visual prey recognition, distance estimation, and prey capture (reviewed in Kral, 1999, Prete, 1999, Prete and Hamilton, 1999, Prete, et al., 1999, Kral and Prete, 2004, Yamawaki, 2006). This work has focused on mantids in captivity, typically striking at moving targets. We report a mantid (Hierodula patellifera Serville) that approached and stalked prey that had come to rest outdoors. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed observation of stalking behavior by a wild mantid in an outdoor setting, as field accounts of predation typically describe prey items, but not the preceding stalking behavior (e.g., Barrows, 1984, Ramsay, 1990, Hurd, et al., 1994, Maxwell and Eitan, 1998). On 2 Jan. 08 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, HI (19° 34' N, 155° 58' W), at c. 2300 hrs, the observer (DTN) turned on an outside balcony light of a building overlooking a garden. Ambient temperature was c. 24° C. Within a few minutes, an airborne green male H. patellifera landed on the wall c. 50 cm from the light (c. 8 cm body length). The observer moved the mantid to a table c. 2 m from the light for identification purposes. The mantid was left on the table. At c. 2315, a large brown moth landed on the wall c. 40 cm from the light (black witch moth, Ascalapha ordorata L.). The mantid quickly turned its head in the moth’s direction. This particular moth was c. 18 cm at greatest wingspan and c. 12 cm from tip of head to posterior tip of abdomen. Once landed, the moth remained stationary over the next c. 20 minutes; it did not crawl, fly, or flutter its wings as the mantid approached. The illuminated large moth was conspicuous against the white wall. At c. 2330, the mantid flew to the wall and landed c. 1 m from the moth. After a few minutes, the mantid began crawling towards the moth, moving upward along the wall, towards the moth’s posterior. The mantid’s approach behavior involved frequent back-and-forth rocking, or “peering” movements (Kral and Poteser, 1997; Kral, 1999; Yamawaki 2006). Typically, the mantid took a step, then rocked 2-3 times before taking another step. The mantid crawled the c. 1 m distance to the stationary moth within c. 5 minutes. Volume 119, Number 4, September and October 2008 425

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