I was busy snapping photos of some flowering garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), which was just crawling with pollinators slurping up a free lunch, when I was surprised to see a well-camouflaged Chinese mantis (Tenodera aridifolia) sitting on the blossoms. On closer inspection, I noticed one of the lunching honeybees (Apis mellifera) had become lunch herself (worker bees are sterile females). As the mantis — one of a hunting pair — savagely ripped into her body with its powerful mandibles, the hapless (and helpless) field worker thrashed its legs about wildly.
Gruesome stuff!
Chinese manitis on garlic chives in Riverside Park, NYC.