Dragon Mantis article

[GayJerk]

Hey guys! Did you see this article? Super cool species! My favorite part are the raptors, the inside is shaped like a bowl almost. I wish they weren't so rare... one can only dream about a species like this being in the hobby one day.

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/2018/01/animals-insects-brazil-rainforests

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

I think I might plan a trip to Brazil now. I have heard of that species before. Super cool looking and there’s nothing really like it. 

 

[GayJerk]

I think I might plan a trip to Brazil now. I have heard of that species before. Super cool looking and there’s nothing really like it. 

on an unrelated topic, dragonflies have always seemed more intelligent than we give them credit for. I actually think they'd make good pets despite their whole flying ordeal lol 

 

[River Dane]

Amazing species! Always thought that “Dragon Mantis” referred to Toxodera sp., never heard of this one. It looks epic! I might have to move to SA, they have the best bugs down there. 

 

[CosbyArt]

Interesting article and glad to see a recent expedition, and finding the rare Dragon (Stenophylla cornigera) had to be awesome.

In December 2017, Lanna and his Project Mantis colleagues went into the Atlantic rain forest to find and study new, rare, or historically undocumented mantises

I'm curious if they did find any new suspected uncatalogued mantid species, but didn't see any details either way (or other species known for that matter). A look online for the project manager Leonardo Lanna only turned up his Facebook page, he talks about the trip briefly in a single post. I did not though see any research or published articles about it, or any of his previous work online.

on an unrelated topic, dragonflies have always seemed more intelligent than we give them credit for. I actually think they'd make good pets despite their whole flying ordeal lol 

There has been strides on studying dragonflies in recent years, for use in computer/robotic AI and military drones besides just scientifically. Here is an interesting article I found about them and their intelligence, and the free full published article.

“It suggests the possibility of a top-down process of selective attention of the sort we normally associate with high order thinking,” Dr. Wiederman said. “So here we have a simple brain of less than a million neurons behaving like our own brain of 100 billion neurons.”

For better or worse the flying as adults only lasts 4 to 6 months, but they spend up to 5 years as larvae in water and the only reason I've never tried to keep them. I have always been fascinated by them, but what a huge tank setup to cover the life cycle.

Now after keeping many various insects as pets, feeders, and many other things - how would a dragonfly respond to husbandry care compared to others? I bet they would show some "trained" traits and perhaps some feedback characteristics we find adoring in mantids.

 

[GayJerk]

For better or worse the flying as adults only lasts 4 to 6 months, but they spend up to 5 years as larvae in water and the only reason I've never tried to keep them. I have always been fascinated by them, but what a huge tank setup to cover the life cycle.

Now after keeping many various insects as pets, feeders, and many other things - how would a dragonfly respond to husbandry care compared to others? I bet they would show some "trained" traits and perhaps some feedback characteristics we find adoring in mantids.

I actually didn't know that about dragonflies! I think they can be "trained" in the way you are talking about. There's plenty of videos where they learn to be handled without flying away. I started getting an interest in them when I was taking pictures over the summer. At first they kept flying away but after awhile they realized I wasn't a threat and let me get inches away it was a super cool thing to experience!

 

[CosbyArt]

I actually didn't know that about dragonflies! I think they can be "trained" in the way you are talking about. There's plenty of videos where they learn to be handled without flying away. I started getting an interest in them when I was taking pictures over the summer. At first they kept flying away but after awhile they realized I wasn't a threat and let me get inches away it was a super cool thing to experience!

Great to hear, strangely that is one thing I haven't looked-up online is people and dragonflies. Nice photo and great experience too. My experiences primarily have been when I've gone fishing at local lakes and dragonflies would land on my fishing rod, and buzz by my head. They always did great to keep most mosquitoes and horseflies away from me.

 

[Ocelotbren]

Great article, thanks for sharing.  The article about dragonflies was also fascinating.  I didn't know a lot of that stuff about dragonflies!