Amazing mantid facts!!

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bradley7779

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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! ...... :D

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

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

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

 
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!

 
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.

 
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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Kruszakus said:
Orin, you are exaggerating -
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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.

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

 
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.
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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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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.

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

 
salomonis said:
Bats echo locate; owls do not.
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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.

 
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... ;)
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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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