# Amazing mantid facts!!



## bradley7779 (Dec 23, 2008)

Hi All,

Thought I would start a thread so people can add their snippets of amazing facts regarding the beautiful mantis family!

Did you know? Praying mantids’ excellent eyesight allows some to see movement up to 60 feet (18 meters) away...

Your go! ......


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## bradley7779 (Dec 23, 2008)

ok .. no ones playin so heres another... :lol: 

The word mantis derives from the Greek word mantis for prophet or fortune teller..


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## Kruszakus (Dec 23, 2008)

When flying males detect predators like bats or owls, they immediatelly "plummet" in an attempt to escape from danger.


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## kamakiri (Dec 23, 2008)

The surprising thing to me was that they 'hear' bats (and I'm guessing the owls) through a chamber in their abdomen before making the evasive maneuver.

Mantids are the only insects capable of 'looking over their shoulder'...or turning their heads to face backwards.

I hope others chime in with more interesting facts!


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## d0rk2dafullest (Dec 23, 2008)

Mantis's supposedly have the fastest "strike" movement in the animal kingdom


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## ABbuggin (Dec 23, 2008)

Females rarely eat their mate's head, despite popular belief.


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## Orin (Dec 23, 2008)

If a mantid's head and forearms along with nearby prothorax are disconnected from the body it can live for weeks and still try to feed.


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## Kruszakus (Dec 23, 2008)

Orin, you are exaggerating - they can SELDOM live for several days, but being "cut off" from the nutrients "stored" in the abdomen, and being unable to feed they perish prety fast - the record with mine "amputee" was just four days.

Sometimes males bite off female's head while in copula, and males of some species are big enough to attack females and devour them just like any prey, if they are hungry.


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## d0rk2dafullest (Dec 23, 2008)

Males can mate without their head.

i dont think we ever can or will try =)


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## Orin (Dec 23, 2008)

Kruszakus said:


> Orin, you are exaggerating -


Nope, I had one eaten by a fellow tank mate that left just these parts and it lived on for weeks and had no idea it was not a whole mantis. Normally I'd feed something like that to another predator but it was so spunky I couldn't do it. I think I wrote about it on the forum years ago. It was a real oddity but it did happen.


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## Christian (Dec 23, 2008)

> Mantis's supposedly have the fastest "strike" movement in the animal kingdom


Not really. The fastest predatory strike is found in mantis shrimps (Stomatopoda). The fastest movement at all should be the ejecting poison capsules of jellyfish, if I remember well. However, mantids aren't slow, either...


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## sidewinder (Dec 23, 2008)

kamakiri said:


> The surprising thing to me was that they 'hear' bats (and I'm guessing the owls) through a chamber in their abdomen before making the evasive maneuver.


Actually, the hearing organs are located in a canal on the underside of the thorax. The organs are better developed in the males (probably because they fly more). The organs are sensitive to the the frequency ranges bats use in their native habitat. Most species have two hearing organs, one on each side of the canal, but tests indicate they do not hear in stereo. At least one species has four hearing organs in the canal.

Bats echo locate; owls do not.

Scott


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## darkspeed (Dec 23, 2008)

They were rated to have the highest strike efficiency of all predators. Better than lions, tigers, great white sharks etc. More often than not, if they attack something, it ends up going in their mouth.


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## hibiscusmile (Dec 24, 2008)

They are also number 3 in the order of most prefered pets, dogs, cats, mantis!


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## Orin (Dec 24, 2008)

hibiscusmile said:


> They are also number 3 in the order of most prefered pets, dogs, cats, mantis!


 I'm 99% sure bird, reptile, tarantula and cockroach fit between cat and mantis.


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## Anleoflippy (Dec 24, 2008)

When the Insect is resting, it folds its Raptorial legs like in a Prayer and that is why it is called the Praying Mantis...


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## kamakiri (Dec 24, 2008)

salomonis said:


> Bats echo locate; owls do not.


I know owls do not echo locate. Just responding to the post above mine. Thanks for the correction on the location of the chamber(s). I read something that said 'abdomen' and did not see a picture or cutaway that explained better.


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## PhilinYuma (Dec 24, 2008)

Orin said:


> I'm 99% sure bird, reptile, tarantula and cockroach fit between cat and mantis.


It depends on who's doing the preferring!


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## d0rk2dafullest (Dec 24, 2008)

Christian said:


> Not really. The fastest predatory strike is found in mantis shrimps (Stomatopoda). The fastest movement at all should be the ejecting poison capsules of jellyfish, if I remember well. However, mantids aren't slow, either...


Something Mantis =) and

since those arms are so krazy....

other animals seem to have that trait to help them out too.... such as the praying mantis that can fly... dont know what it called,..... the mantis shrimp, both smasher and spearer. And our ghost shrimp that looks like mantis that i saw earlier !


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## Orin (Dec 24, 2008)

PhilinYuma said:


> It depends on who's doing the preferring!


 Oh yeath, fish would be near the top. I was going by popularity, my list would be different and dogs and cats would be near the bottom.


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## cloud jaguar (Dec 25, 2008)

I think one of the most amazing facts about mantids is that it is so easy to anthropomorphise them and ascribe human traits or whatever to them based on our own projections. This makes them seem mysterious and cool to me. Througout history and in many cultures these have been revered as psychopomps (guides to/through the underworld), divine messengers, gods, poison bearers, mystical creatures, sacred beings and other cool stuff. Anyways, i just love that they enjoy killing flies and crickets. I just wish I could culture my true nemesis (which have riven me to the brink of madness on many a day astream, fly rod in hand) - blackflies, just so that I could enjoy watching the mantids eat them. Revenge aside, people have many different reasons to want to keep these cool aliens close by.


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## sk8erkho (Dec 28, 2008)

Some large adult mantids even eat animals much larger than themselves, like frogs,

lizards, and small birds, and even rodents!!!! Yep, rodents!!!


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## nasty bugger (Jan 4, 2009)

Amazing fact: Manits' don't do housework. They are lousy at doing dishes, or taking out the trash, but they are entertaining to watch.

Maybe someone will enhance this amazing fact, that I heard, but mantis' have a spike that they can punch prey with to injure them, then they snatch and eat the prey.


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## nasty bugger (Jan 4, 2009)

Amazing fact: Manits' don't do housework. They are lousy at doing dishes, or taking out the trash, but they are entertaining to watch.

Maybe someone will enhance this amazing fact, that I heard, but mantis' have a spike that they can punch prey with to injure them, then they snatch and eat the prey.

I don't know if it's do to this stimulus, but my mantis in the jar closest to my aquarium almost launched himself out of the jar when I opened it, houston we have lift off. I wonder if it's an instinctual action due to the fish being insect eaters and maybe the mantis knows it, or maybe he just wanted to get out and party on a saturday night, don't really know.

I moved his jar much further away from the aquarium, and I'll see if he's so jumpy next time, but then it won't be saturday night anymore either, so that control factor will be eliminated...


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## hibiscusmile (Jan 4, 2009)

Orin said:


> I'm 99% sure bird, reptile, tarantula and cockroach fit between cat and mantis.


Just quoting what was on the news  oh ps,,, cockroach not even funny


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## Emile.Wilson (Jan 24, 2009)

sk8erkho said:


> Some large adult mantids even eat animals much larger than themselves, like frogs,lizards, and small birds, and even rodents!!!! Yep, rodents!!!


I like this http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=NhtHDK2K73A


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## Emile.Wilson (Jan 24, 2009)

oooh also this

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kGlEVZH6k&amp;...feature=related


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## Anleoflippy (Jan 25, 2009)

Also this...

Mantis are related to its usual meal, Cockroach and grasshoppers...


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