Some folks enjoy a doughnut, bagel, muffin or fruit for breakfast--and maybe some cream cheese on the bagel and honey on the muffin.

Not so the praying mantis.

If he were in a restaurant, he'd tell the waiter "I'd like a bee for breakfast, please."

Or maybe he would leave off the "please" and tell the waiter "Hurry, I'm hungry. Move it, will ya?"

A bee for breakfast is not only perfectly fine for him, but also a bee for lunch, and a bee for dinner. 

This young bee (below) was nectaring some salvia (sage) near the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, University of California, Davis, when a cunning praying mantis, lying in wait, nailed her. He grabbed her in his spiked forelegs and swoosh, it was all over.  No more buzzing around the salvia. No more sipping the sweet nectar. No more sharing with her colony back at the hive.

Every time this happens--when a mantid nails a honey bee--I want to say outloud: "Why don't you go after a fly? Or a spotted cucumber beetle? Or an aphid?"

Indeed, dear mantid, why not have a nutritious fly for breakfast and a colorful spotted cucumber beetle for lunch? And maybe a succulent aphid for dinner?

Alas, you cannot tell a mantid what to stalk and what to eat.

It was bee for breakfast.