Strike

Last night, the ugly locust was there again, feeding on the plant right at the spot that Madam customarily occupies. But this time, Madam was there, too. Over the span of about half an hour, she watched the locust, sitting there right next to him.

The picture clearly conveys the difference in size between the locust and Madam. My estimation is, that the locust has about five to six times the body mass, although the length is approximately the same.
And Madam slowly opened her predatory fore legs, rocked back and forth a few times, and then the strike happened. For a split second, she had the locust in her grasp, but then gravity took its toll and she could not hold on anymore. I watched her on a daily basis (if she decided to show herself) for almost three months now, so I know her behavior a little bit. And so I knew, that she would strike eventually, and had the camera rolling all the time. Out of the fifteen minutes or so of footage, I extracted the five seconds that show the strike.

According to the book "The Praying Mantids" by Prete, Hurd, Wells, and Wells, Mantids do not recognize the shape or the body mass of their prey, but only if it is an elongated form that fits into the correct size bracket.
A nymph would only strike at a very small target, whereas a fully grown (female) Mantis, which occasionally eats their (male) conspecifics, would probably consider a locust of about the same length as herself as genuine prey. Never mind that the locust is actually completely out of her league, because of the great disparity in body mass. It fits the other criteria, so let's give it a try!
I would have loved to see Madam actually being successful here, because first of all, the locust eats our (her) plant, secondly it is really ugly and stupid looking, and thirdly that would have been an amazing spectacle. I seriously doubt that she would have had the stomach to finish all of the locust - but what a feast nevertheless!

That Madam considered the locust as prey cements my assumption that she has eaten Mini-Me. He was in the same length bracket as the locust and clearly in her league relative to the body mass. Also, I am convinced now that she also ate the nymph Number Three, which would have been a mere snack to her.
It seems as if we had a fearless, dangerous, and deadly predator in our plant. Long gone are the days of Madam being considered as a sweet and delicate, pet-like creature. I am just grateful that we humans are clearly out of her league ...