Short Communication |
Corresponding author: Roberto Battiston ( roberto.battiston@biodiversityassociation.org ) Academic editor: Matan Shelomi
© 2018 Roberto Battiston, Rajesh Puttaswamaiah, Nayak Manjunath.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Battiston R, Puttaswamaiah R, Manjunath N (2018) The fishing mantid: predation on fish as a new adaptive strategy for praying mantids (Insecta: Mantodea). Journal of Orthoptera Research 27(2): 155-158. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.27.28067
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Observations in unmanipulated, semi-natural conditions were made of a single individual of the praying mantid Hierodula tenuidentata, while hunting and capturing an unusual prey for this kind of insect, guppy fish, Poecilia reticulata. This repetitive fishing behavior, recorded daily, is reported here for the first time and discussed in relation to the adaptive behavioral plasticity of praying mantids. We speculate regarding learning from experience as a hunting strategy.
behavior, evolution, India, learning, vision
Mantids can be considered generalist predators but they are known to feed mostly on other insects, especially on fly-like insects (
Several observations in the literature (i.e.
A single, 5.6 cm large male specimen of Hierodula tenuidentata Saussure, 1869, unequivocally recognizable by a white antennomerus on the right antenna, was occasionally observed in a private roof garden in Karnataka, India, preying on guppy fish, Poecilia reticulata Peters, 1859 (Fig.
The garden is located on top of a building about 5 m from the ground and containing about 15 potted plants. Other natural prey for mantids like wasps, butterflies, spiders, etc., have been frequently observed on these plants and in the garden which, even if mostly artificial, can be considered a semi-natural and functional habitat for a mantid like Hierodula, which is well-accustomed to gardens and urban areas (
During the five days, the mantid was observed capturing and devouring a total of nine guppy fish. In seven cases, the mantid started eating from the tail (Fig.
Fish do not move like lizards, locusts, hummingbirds or flies. They swim under the usual hunting field of a mantid and are separated by the barrier of water. Some other invertebrates like spiders, and especially fishing spiders, can hunt in water, but the origin of this adaptation occurred more than once in their evolution (
Despite the limitations, our observations raise three important fields for speculation. First, this case confirms that in their natural habitat, mantids can and do feed on vertebrates, even on fish. In this case, of the approximately 40 individual fish present in the pond, nine of them were eaten by the mantid within a span of five days, showing the potential for a single invertebrate to have a strong impact on the fish community and, since guppies, like many other small fish, are active predators of aquatic insects, indirectly on the whole pond ecosystem.
Second, although the compound eyes of most mantids are appositional, sensitive to movement, and adapted to vision mostly in daylight (
Third, the predation was not just occasional, but repeated. This scenario, from a more speculative perspective, suggests the possibility that the insect learned from the experience where and what to hunt. Mantids are known to use aversive learning to avoid toxic prey (
Many mantids, including Hierodula, are known to be sit-and-wait predators (
We are particularly grateful to Prof. Michael Maxell from the National University (California) for his valuable comments and to Arya Rajesh for his assistance in field observations and photography. We thank the reviewers for their valuable contribution and the Orthopterists’ Society for the support in this manuscript.
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.