EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Mantid Attack

Praying Mantis (unknown species), poss. Family Mantidae
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Explanation:  The species I do not know, but it is a not unfamiliar sight to find a praying mantis stalking another insect, in this case a flying ant.  

It was after dark, in the village of Monkoto along the immense and tractless tropical forests of Salonga National Park, deep in the heart of the Congo River Basin, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Our gas generator was briefly providing a little evening light when I spotted this mantid's antics.  

Perhaps this species is akin to the African mantis (Sphodromantis viridis), but its coloration is wrong, its forearm is more slender, and its thorax is slimmer and longer.  

Mantids are kept as pets, although their habit of preying on other insects
that we humans may think of as pests would best be kept to the wild.
    

Interestingly, mantids are capable of regenerating a lost limb during moult.
  

The two large compound eyes look other-worldly.
Three additional small eyes on the middle of the head
help detect light.