Praying mantis strikes impressive defensive pose under attack from domestic cat

The video shows a domestic cat idly playing with a praying mantis that happened to be in the area (unfortunately for the praying mantis). Domestic cats instinctively regard insects as prey animals. Domestic cats often play with their prey as we know, and they like to mess around with insects to brighten up their idle lives. In this instance the cat is played to entertain herself.

But to the praying mantis it is an attack by a predator and an aggressor. And equally instinctively the praying mantis takes up this well-known and impressive defensive display. It’s instinctive but what is impressive about it for me is that the mantis is prepared to defend itself against a domestic cat which towers above it, a huge giant which can kill it in a flash.

 
That doesn’t enter the mind of the praying mantis. Perhaps it believes it can defend itself successfully or perhaps it’s just so instinctive that there is no thought involved.

But it seems to have worked because the cat saunters off, suddenly being unsure about continuing to play with an insect that has its forelegs raised like a boxer ready to fight to the death.

Perhaps this defensive pose display did the trick. It is intended to send a message to the predator that they are bigger than they really are. The praying mantis stands tall, spreads and holds their forelegs in front of them like a boxer in preparation to penetrate the opposition. The wings are fanned out wide and the mouth is open. A terrifying sight to another insect.

And the praying mantis can bite, but I would doubt that a domestic cat would be affected by it. But they are highly aggressive and very capable predators. Under normal circumstances they ambush their prey, grab the insect with their raptorial arms which are lined with spikes, and start eating the prey insect alive by tearing chunks of it with their huge mandibles.

The praying mantis is a voracious predator, and this very bold and capable creature is ready to defend itself against a top mammalian predator far larger than itself.

For a bit of fun here is a video of a caterpillar that looks like a cat. The Twitter video caption reads: “Cute caterpillar looks like a cat The caterpillar of the brown Chinese bush butterfly or Mycalesis gotama has a snout that is familiar to the whole world in the shape of the Hello Kitty logo”.

Below are some more articles on insects.