Chinese Mantid Rolling His Eyes

[ManisJunky]

Wow....check out 1 minute of this video......INSANE what he is doing with his eyes. Has anyone seen this before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaDWKlQbPX8

MantisJunky

 

[JoeCapricorn]

That is, in fact an optical illusion.

Insects do not have pupils, what you are seeing there is what is called a "pseudopupil"

A pseudopupil is just the lenses of a insect's compound eye that is absorbing all of the light coming from the observer, in this case the camera used to record this Chinese mantis eating. It moves around because his head moves around. From a certain angle, it can appear like he has two pupils per eye. In some insects, the pseudopupil can be wide enough to nearly cover the entire eye - as it is in Dragonflies.

 

[ManisJunky]

That is, in fact an optical illusion.

Insects do not have pupils, what you are seeing there is what is called a "pseudopupil"

A pseudopupil is just the lenses of a insect's compound eye that is absorbing all of the light coming from the observer, in this case the camera used to record this Chinese mantis eating. It moves around because his head moves around. From a certain angle, it can appear like he has two pupils per eye. In some insects, the pseudopupil can be wide enough to nearly cover the entire eye - as it is in Dragonflies.

Wow! Thank you for the detailed explanation, that is amazing. :blink:

 

[LauraMG]

Looked like that was the best meal of his entire life!

 

[ManisJunky]

Looked like that was the best meal of his entire life!

LOL! Yeah, I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it on video for the first time. :lol:

 

[hibiscusmile]

cool music, my fav!

 

[Rick]

What Joe said. I saw it described once as that black spot is spot on the eye surface that is directly facing the person or camera in this case.

 

[Chief Tom]

hmmm....