DOI: 10.5061/dryad.nzs7h453b
title: Data from: Prey movement, size, and glossiness interact to impact praying mantid attack behaviours

description: When moving, animals are vulnerable to predation because movement can
 rapidly attract the attention of a predator. To reduce the risk of
 predation while moving, animals can use a variety of different strategies
 (e.g., erratic movement, colouration). These strategies often work in
 combination or may be influenced by other prey characteristics (e.g.,
 size), but few studies have explored these interactions. Here, we
 investigate how movement trajectory (linear or erratic), prey size (small
 or large), and prey colouration (glossy or matte) interact to impact
 attack behaviour of giant rainforest mantids (Hierodula majuscula). We
 presented mantids with 3D animations of moving targets and filmed their
 response with a high-speed camera. As expected, mantids were more likely
 to track large than small targets and targets moving linearly than
 erratically. Counterintuitively, however, mantids were quicker to strike
 at erratically moving targets, perhaps because they more closely resembled
 preferred prey. When mantids attacked the target, their accuracy was
 influenced by the interaction of target trajectory and glossiness. As
 predicted, mantids had larger attack errors (i.e. lower accuracy) toward
 erratically moving glossy targets compared to linearly moving glossy
 targets or erratically moving matte targets. However, contrary to our
 prediction that linearly moving matte targets would be easiest to capture,
 these targets also elicited large attack errors, similar to those recorded
 for erratically moving glossy targets. Together, our results demonstrate
 that anti-predator tactics for prey in motion may interact in complex
 ways, and simple experimental scenarios may overlook context-dependent
 effects that emerge when multiple factors interact.
description: # **Data from: Prey movement, size, and glossiness interact to impact
 praying mantid attack behaviours** ### Yvonne Wang^1^, Devi Stuart-Fox^1^,
 Amanda M. Franklin^1,2^ *Affiliations*: ^1^ School of BioSciences, The
 University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic., Australia ^2^ Department of
 Ecological, Plant and Animal Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic.
 Australia *Correspondence*: Amanda Franklin. email:
 [a.franklin@latrobe.edu.au](mailto:a.franklin@latrobe.edu.au) #####
 **ABSTRACT** Animals can use a variety of different strategies (e.g.
 erratic movement, colouration) to reduce the risk of predation. These
 strategies often work in combination or may be influenced by other prey
 characteristics (e.g., size). Here, we investigate how movement trajectory
 (linear or erratic), prey size (small or large) and prey colouration
 (glossy or matte) interact to impact attack behaviour of giant rainforest
 mantids (*Hierodula majuscula*). We presented mantids with animations of
 moving targets and filmed their response with a high-speed camera. This
 repository contains the associated data and analysis code for this
 experiment. ##### **DATA COLLECTION DETAILS** This experiment investigated
 response of praying mantids to animated stimuli on a computer monitor in
 the laboratory. Data was collected from 17 female giant rainforest praying
 mantids (*Hierodula majuscula*) in April - May 2023. Each mantid was
 exposed to all eight treatments (i.e. linear vs erratic movement, glossy
 vs matte colouration, small vs large size). ##### **ANALYSIS FILE**
 *Wangetal_analysis_dryad.R*: Runs all GLMMS to investigate effects of
 glossiness, trajectory and size on mantid attack behaviours ##### DATASET
 *Wangetal_2025DRYAD.csv:* Behavioural data compiled from high speed videos
 of mantids attacking animated targets Note: NA indicates not applicable
 because the mantids did not strike. ###### *Metadata* * *uqID*: unique
 identifier for every row (i.e. for every trial) * *day*: experimental day
 number * *id*: mantid ID number * *experience*: trial number for each
 individual mantid * *glossiness*: target glossiness treatment - glossy or
 matte * *size*: target size treatment - large or small * *traj*: target
 trajectory treatment - random or straight * *treatment*: full treatment
 combination of target glossiness, size and trajectory * *animationrep*:
 letter indicating the background scene used to create each animation *
 *track*: response variable indicating whether or not the mantid tracked
 the target (Yes/No) * *track_no*: a count of the number of times the
 target passed the mantid before the mantid struck at the target. Maximum
 number of pass-bys was 20. * *attack*: response variable indicating
 whether or not the mantid attacked the target (Yes/No) * *hitscreen*:
 response variable indicating whether or not the mantid strike hit the
 computer monitor (Yes/No) * *hittarget:* response variable indicating
 whether or not the mantid strike hit the target (Yes/No) *
 *targethalfwidth*: measured halfwidth of the target used to calibrate the
 attack error variable. Should be either 12mm for the large target or 8.4mm
 for the small target *The next eight columns are used to calculate the
 shortest distance between the centre of the target and the mantids arms
 during a strike. The values indicate the x,y coordinates of each arm at
 the start and end of a strike. A line is drawn between these two points
 for each arm and the shortest distance between that line and the target
 centre is extracted, for each arm. We then selected value from the arm
 with the smaller value. This is attack error (final column).* *
 *leftarm_start_x*: left arm, start of strike, x coordinate *
 *leftarm_start_y*: left arm, start of strike, y coordinate *
 *leftarm_end_x*: left arm, end of strike, x coordinate * *leftarm_end_y*:
 left arm, end of strike, y coordinate * *rightarm_start_x*: right arm,
 start of strike, x coordinate * *rightarm_start_y*: right arm, start of
 strike, y coordinate * *rightarm_end_x*: right arm, end of strike, x
 coordinate * *rightarm_end_y*: right arm, end of strike, y coordinate *
 *attackerror*: shortest distance mantid arm and target centre (mm)