THE feeding behaviour of the praying mantis typically consists of a period of visual search, a slow approach to the prey, capture by an extremely rapid grasping movement of the raptorial prothoracic legs and ingestion of the captured food1,2. The stimulus releasing the strike is visual and is maximal when the prey moves within reach of the forelegs and exhibits rapid, jerky movements of its appendages3. The degree of responsiveness of a mantis to prey is dependent on its nutritional state4. As starvation proceeds, a mantis will become aware of and stalk prey moving at greater distances from its body, will stalk more quickly and will strike at larger prey (ref. 4 and my unpublished work).