I’ve spent days watching Maurice the Mantis. Watch me. A mantis that big has got to be eating, but with me watching him Maurice wouldn’t deign to so much as nibble on an aphid (and trust me, there are plenty on the borage plant he calls home). It was only today that I realised Maurice’s ego and appetite goes waaay beyond aphids.
Big Spoon called me into the garden to see Maurice’s catch, which he was chowing down on with obvious enjoyment. While the poor bee was still alive, and wriggling up a storm. Ouch. Maurice started at the head and worked his way down. He was finding my frenzied photography distracting, so I left him for a while to enjoy his treat in private. Half an hour later, when I checked back with him, there was no evidence left, aside from two bee back legs and a pair of wings. Maurice was enjoying a leisurely post-prandial foreleg lick, so replete that he even gave me a wave.
And even though I’d brought him here to eat the bad pests, not useful ones like honeybees, I didn’t begrudge him his meal. It’s hard to begrudge such a magnificent creature, especially one who perpetually looks like he’s grinning.
[...] Maurice’s predilections for living dangerously, Big Spoon thought that he probably got stung by a bee. I wasn’t convinced that a bee could [...]