Eyes darker in a 12-hour period?

Dana · Jul 2, 2017

Is it from eating? She had two flies today. The second she didn't finish. It was the most she's eaten since I've had her, about a week and a half. Jade is her name, a Carolina mantis. Thoughts on the eyes? I have to admit it kind of creeps me out a bit!

Krissim Klaw · Jul 3, 2017

If you are talking about the second photo, that is perfectly normal. Mantises eyes generally darken at night when it gets dark as it allows more light in and helps their night vision. If the lighting is poor in the room you are keeping them in sometimes their eyes will remain on the darker side during the day too. Sometimes you can also get interesting effects if you have one light source in an otherwise dark room where the mantis will be sitting with one side facing the light and the other the dark resulting in one normal eye and one darkened for nighttime.

CosbyArt · Jul 3, 2017

@Dana Nope, the eye color change has nothing to do with feeders, water, etc they do it naturally at night (or in any low light as well). For the reason behind the natural change in color read this post. Of course though sometimes it isn't just that, and no longer seems to change color. See other related posts below (or search the forum for lots more)...

Dana · Jul 3, 2017

I haven't read the links yet but will but gosh! So cool. Ha! I've never studied the behavior and ways of an insect before and never knew any insect could have anything like that happen like the darker eyes in poor light, etc, thing. That's a really neat fact! And now of course my brain is wondering what other insects out there have such neat features. Ha!

CosbyArt · Jul 4, 2017

@Dana If you explore some scientific research papers your find most insect species have some form of "super powers".

Take a look at one of the free access sites like NCBI for articles, like this one on the visual system of Tenodera sinensis.

Sadly there are a few other such sites like the NCBI, but most require registration from a university and hundreds or thousands in yearly fees to gain access. I tried to contact a few for individual access and one response I got was to visit a local university to access their site while there. Not much help for sure, and the local university here (Indiana University) I avoid when possible. Although if I was close to Lafayette I would be harassing the staff at Purdue regularly due to their entomology and related programs (heck even their website is handy for various things occasionally).