The food choice in praying mantis primarily depends on their body demands and the availability of prey organisms in their habitats. They do not target prey that are not abundant as it requires more effort to hunt them. Accordingly, they can capture superworms, earthworms, or mealworms.
Can Praying Mantis Eat Superworms? Praying mantis can eat superworms due to their high nutritional value, as they are rich sources of minerals, protein, and vitamins. You can feed mantis by slicing superworms and removing the darker gut region before offering. They can eat around 3 to 5 superworms daily.
Superworms provide a significant nutrition content to many insects and other invertebrates due to the high content of macronutrients. Smaller concentrations of micronutrients are also present in the beetle’s larvae, which can make praying mantis stronger and more active.
Why do praying mantis eat superworms?
Praying mantis prefer to eat smaller insects and worms than vertebrates as it is easier for them to digest their soft bodies. The superworms are easier to capture, consume, and devour by these insects.
They are larvae of darkling beetles that are a good food source for many insectivorous creatures in both wild and captivity conditions.
In addition, their soft and segmented bodies are a rich source of minerals like phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and magnesium. They also contain vitamins like vitamin D2 and E.
They are densely packed with protein, fatty acids, fats, and other essential amino acids.
However, they do not have high calcium content but help meet the protein requirement of insects. It is more nutritious than mealworms due to its high content of minerals and vitamins.
Additionally, they eat superworms opportunistically and grasp their segmented bodies during a direct encounter. So, their availability determines the eating preferences of praying mantis.
They attack and capture darkling beetle larvae if present in their territory; otherwise, they look for other abundantly available insects to eat.
How do you feed superworms to praying mantis?
Many people feed worms to their pets and offer various mealworms, superworms, earthworms, and a few other types of worms.
They like to feed on living worms because these insects capture prey before eating. Their predatory nature allows them to grasp and devour prey bodies slowly.
You can feed them to praying mantis by introducing a living worm to their cage. Leave them inside a tank and let them struggle to locate and hunt food.
In addition, you can also prepare food for them by slicing tiny bodies of worms into multiple parts. Remove the darker part of the body and feed other sections using tweezers.
Bring the sliced body parts close to their mouth until they catch food particles with their forelegs or directly swallow them into their mouth.
It is good to offer them in the freeze-dried form if living superworms are not available.
Some mantis rejects freeze-dried worms, so they choose their diet accordingly.
How do superworms defend against praying mantis?
Superworms can defend themselves against praying mantis, but their defensive mechanism is not strong enough.
They are active predatory insects that can quickly strike a prey body with their raptorial legs. Superworms do not produce chemical secretions but can bite in defense.
They are aggressive by nature and fight for their survival if predators try to capture them. They curl bodies to threaten predators but rarely get an escape from attacks.
They attain a C-shape posture to pose difficulty to a predator while trying to grasp the worm’s body. The exoskeleton layer on their body also protects them from deadly attacks.
In addition, they can also bite praying mantis while trying to escape from their firm grip. Mantis have raptorial legs containing spikes on the inner side of their forelimbs.
These spikes cause severe pain in the worm’s body when it tries to move back and forth. It leads to deep injuries in the prey’s body due to wider cuts.
In addition, they do not wait for their prey to die and begin to eat them alive. They start eating from the middle section of the worm’s body or decapitate them.
Furthermore, the superworms make rapid vibrations on the ground by thrashing bodies against a surface to startle the predators, but their efforts go in vain if mantises are the predators.
How many superworms can a praying mantis eat?
The number of superworms a praying mantis can eat primarily depends on prey and predator size.
In the same way, the total number increases if the size of the predatory organism is larger than the prey, as they have to eat more to fulfill nutritional requirements.
Generally, they can eat almost 3 to 5 superworms daily because each worm is nearly 1 to 2 inches long. It means their size is almost half or equal to a mantis.
In contrast, young nymphs eat less than adults due to smaller bodies and consume only 2 to 3 of these superworms in one day. They eat smaller quantities of food but consume it more frequently.
They cannot remain hungry for even a single day and need food every 24 hours, unlike their parents, who can survive without eating for a day or two.
They need food on alternative days as they can store energy and nutrients in their bodies for almost a day.
The female mantis also eats more than males due to a more strenuous lifestyle.
Their number also changes if they consume a variety of other insects in addition to superworms. They have specific body requirements and adjust their eating patterns according to energy needs.
What type of praying mantis can eat superworms?
They have carnivorous diets and eat a variety of living organisms that are easy to capture and devour. The larger species find it less challenging to grasp the worm’s body.
However, smaller species prefer to attack tiny mealworms or earthworms. One of my friends feeds superworms to his Chinese mantis often by adding to his diet.
These larvae can become a regular part of their diet if they like to feed on the soft bodies of these tiny beetle’s larvae. The European mantis can also eat them due to its larger mouth.
They can easily capture living worms from the middle section of their body and begin to eat them from the center without killing them. They consume live prey without waiting for it to die.
In addition, other wild and captive species of praying mantis like to feed on these worms despite their larger size. You can feed them by cutting them into smaller pieces to reduce capturing efforts.
The smaller species usually avoid eating them in the wild because ingesting giant superworms can cause choking risks by getting stuck in their mouth.
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