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Upside down

A female praying mantis(Mantis religiosa)eating a small wall-lizard.

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Luis Felipe García Bergara 5 months ago

I've never seen anything like it, amazing!

jimmy hoffman Gracias Luis.:)
It's quite rare indeed.

George Petrides 1 year ago

Impressive scene and shot!

jimmy hoffman Thanks George.
Cheers,Jimmy

Jalu Pamuncar 1 year ago

great work Jimmy.

jimmy hoffman Thanks Jalu.
Cheers,Jimmy

Henrik Just 1 year ago

Incredible !
I never would have dreamed that the Mantis could prey on Lizards and Birds !
Spectacular shot in a brilliant quality, Jimmy !
Thanks for showing !

Regards

Henrik

jimmy hoffman Thanks for your nice comment, my friend!

asphoto 2 years ago

great

Pierre Pageau 2 years ago

félicitations .

jimmy hoffman Merci.:)

Caramosca 2 years ago

amazing capture and very educational. i didn't know this!

jimmy hoffman Thanks for your nice comments.I appreciate it!
Groet,Jim

eyelife 2 years ago

amazing! that'a real nice shot! very unusual to see that

jimmy hoffman :)

jimmy hoffman Thanks!Much appreciated.

eyelife 2 years ago

amazing! that'a real nice shot! very unusual to see that

Ali Morshedlou 2 years ago

Oh GOD,
Well done...

dannysalim 2 years ago

awesome....it's a percect moment....great photo

jimmy hoffman Thank you!Much appreciated.

AimishBoy 2 years ago

wow!!!!

jimmy hoffman Thanks for commenting!:)

Daniel 2 years ago

Yikes!

jimmy hoffman Haha,yes life can be cruel!
Thanks for commenting.:)

Adam Papik 2 years ago

Unique moment!:)

jimmy hoffman Thanks Adam!Yes,unique it is!:)

MR.LEV 2 years ago

Really good.agin

jimmy hoffman Thanks!I appreciate it.
See my reply to Johan Lind for more details(below).

MR.LEV 2 years ago

Vau, how you did that? Scary.

roarmagne 2 years ago

Amazing shot!! :-)
Roar

jimmy hoffman Thanks Roar!Very kind of you.:)

Dragan M. Babovic 2 years ago

Wow, what a great macro.

jimmy hoffman Thank you,Dragan!:)

Cheron 2 years ago

Unbelievably - mantis eat a lizard ... ! :-O
Perfect shot.

jimmy hoffman Thanks a lot!I appreciate it.

Doug Roane 2 years ago

very weird but well captured. that oughta keep him busy for a while!

jimmy hoffman Thanks.Yes,It took her more than one hour to complete this meal.Only a small piece of the lizards'tail was left.

ablok 2 years ago

So strange but so GOOOOOOD!!!

jimmy hoffman Thank you!:)

Jorge Goncalves Silva 2 years ago

What a moment ! Great photo.

jimmy hoffman Much appreciated!:)

Jose Luis Cunha 2 years ago

fantastic

jimmy hoffman Thanks Jose!:)

Jordi Gallego 2 years ago

Great, another perfect shot. Greetings

jimmy hoffman Thanks again,Jordi!:)

Alexander C. Kokkinos 2 years ago

Yeah! I love praying mantis! They are natural born killers of the insect world! Very nice capture of its lunch time

jimmy hoffman Thanks!They are my favourite insect-species.

Monique 2 years ago

no words!
Amazing!

jimmy hoffman Thanks Monique!:)Very kind of you.

Paul Boomsma 2 years ago

Tsja een foto om van te Smullen! :)

Grtz,
Paul.

jimmy hoffman Haha,dank voor je leuke commentaar,Paul!:))

Johan Lind 2 years ago

Interesting photo to say the least! But, this is a very odd situation, did this really happen in real life? How did that mantis manage to catch the lizard? Was the lizard well? Did this happen in an enclosure or indoors? Or was the mantis fed by hand?

In the scientific literature there are a couple of reports on mantises praying on _juvenile_, and therefore very small, lizards in the wild. I know one record from 1903 and another one from 1996.

This is a very rare sight indeed. It'd be interesting to know more about how this happened!

All the best
/Johan

jimmy hoffman Actually it happened in our garden.This big female Mantis religiosa was living there for some time.Occassionally I fed it with insects like flies and grasshoppers.M.religiosa is a very aggressive species and tries to catch everything that moves(even your fingers,I know from experience).She remained most of the time at the same spot hanging head down a branch.One morning,when I was watering the plants,I saw that the mantis had caught the wall-lizard(there are a lot of this reptiles in our garden,especially this year)She already had eaten the lizards' head and it wasn't moving anymore.So,I was very lucky to get the opportunity to shoot some pictures of this special moment.Mantis religiosa is a very common species here in Spain,where I live.I've found them several times in our garden.The smaller males often are attracted by the lights around our house.
I've read about an observation of Archimantis latistylus attacking and eating a golden bell frog Litoria aurea.Also Hierodula werneri is said to make something of a habit of preying upon small tree frogs such as Litoria caerulea.This big species has also been seen to capture a small bird,the brown honeycreeper Lichmera indistincta And also a gecko Hemidactylus frenatus was eaten by this mantis-species.
A large specimen of a Chinese mantis(Tenodera spec.) had managed the capture of a white-footed deer-mouse Peromyscus leucopus.
By the way,it was the second time that I saw M.religiosa eating a lizard.A few years ago,I also witnessed it in our garden.But the lizard was a lot smaller that time.
Thanks for your comment and questions!
Cheers,Jim

Johan Lind That's just amazing Jimmy! I enjoyed reading your story. I guess one anomalous thing that happened here in Sweden last year was a goldcrest that got caught in a spiderweb, quite weird...

I'm looking forward to seeing more from you :-)
/johan

Devid Camerlynck 2 years ago

terug heel mooi

jimmy hoffman Dank je wel,David!:)

gabtudor 2 years ago

Impressive work, well done

jimmy hoffman Thank you!I appreciate it.

Peter Kemp 2 years ago

gewedlige plaat weer Jim waar vind je doe ie monsterachtige aliens LOL

gr peter

jimmy hoffman Dank je,amigo!Ik hoef er niet lang naar te zoeken hier.Dit hele wrede tafereel vond plaats in onze achtertuin!
Saludos,Jim

Sinisa Zjacic 2 years ago

This is amazing

jimmy hoffman Thank you,Sinisa!:)

yuan 2 years ago

very great... salam senyum -u1-

jimmy hoffman Thank you!Much appreciated.:)

Luis Marinho 2 years ago

Amazing! Cheers, Luis.

jimmy hoffman Many thanks,Luis!:)

Ralf Stelander 2 years ago

Fight club! Extraordinary shot!

jimmy hoffman And a fight it was!Thanks for your nice comment,Ralf.

Angela Bacon-Kidwell 2 years ago

Nice catch for both of you!

jimmy hoffman Thanx,Angela!:)

Niels Christian Wulff 2 years ago

Very cool jimmy :-)
/Wulff

jimmy hoffman Thanks amigo!:))

Biliana 2 years ago

wowww owwww bravo for this capture :))) I never saw such thing!!! thank you for sharing :)

jimmy hoffman Thanks again,Biliana!Yes,I was very lucky to see this.

Slavomir M. 2 years ago

hardly to believe. great capture

jimmy hoffman Thanks!I appreciate it.

doron.nissim. 2 years ago

Excellent work here ...
V !!!

jimmy hoffman Thanks as lot!:)

Piet Flour 2 years ago

Indeed, I 've never seen this before. Keep sharing Jimmy!
Piet

jimmy hoffman Actually it was the second time I saw this happening!Thanks for commenting Piet.

Bill Mangold 2 years ago

Another good one Jimmy! I guess the lizard didn't pray enough!
Bill

jimmy hoffman Haha,I think so too.Thanks Bill.:)
Cheers,Jim

Jeannette Oerlemans 2 years ago

Wow! Great! And a perfect background!

jimmy hoffman Thanks Jeannette!Much appreciated.

Tshuvi Kuba 2 years ago

amazing capture

jimmy hoffman Thank you!:)

Roeselien Raimond 2 years ago

Goed om deze topfoto hier tegen te komen!
Hoe vaker ik er naar kijk hoe bijzonder-der ik 'm vind.
Knap ook dat je de achtergrond zo rustig hebt weten te houden.

Groet,
Roeselien

jimmy hoffman Dank je,Roeselien!Ik hoop hier binnenkort ook weer nieuw werk van jou te kunnen bewonderen.
Cheers,Jim