Ants

One might not believe that a predator will be harassed by its prey - but I've actually seen this behavior numerous times with birds of prey that were chased and attacked by much smaller birds.
Today, I witnessed a similar thing with our mantis and some pesky ants. Many of those little black garden ants had invaded the plant, and they literally swarmed all over the place - and two of them actually crawled over the mantis' legs.
Instead of defending herself, and just eating the impertinent intruders, which she could have done easily, Madam chose to just leave and avoid any further confrontation. Maybe she was not hungry, or ants do not taste good, or maybe she did not want to declare war on the whole tribe - Madam gracefully, but recognizably p.o.'ed, retired to another leaf.

Some moments later, I wandered around the backyard and noticed a bright, colorful bug in one of our sunflowers. But before I could get a decent shot of this interesting critter, it too was chased away by those ants. They are virtually all over the whole place. We probably need to do something against it, before they eat everything there.