How Intelligent are Mantids?

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I've also noticed my Chinese mantids waving their arms and turning to follow my movements as I walk past their enclosures. But, I've had them do a couple of other things that definitely suggest recognition to me.1) If they were outside of their enclosures and I ignored their gestures, they would fly to me. This happened often enough that I didn't think it was a random event.

2) They also seem to have a fascination with human faces, and are always trying to climb up to mine. Normally, I would associate this behavior with a mantid's climbing instincts, but if I am holding the mantid in my hand and raise my hand above my head, they would climb down to my face.

I think the fact that a mantis will gently lick the salt from your skin without trying to bite, and will turn and attack another insect in the same instant, shows a little intelligence. Also, I've had my mantids readily come to my hand, but shy away from the hand of a stranger. Again, this appears to be a simple form of recognition.
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Stories like this make me think that mantis intelligence has not been sufficiently researched, which was why I made my original post. There's anecdotal stories to indicate that mantids have more intellgence than your average house fly or typical insect. It's instinctive for insects to fear large animals as potential predators (i.e. bats, birds, cats, etc), yet some species of mantids seem able to go beyond this fear, making them interesting pets. Much like vertebrate fish, they can change their behavior, apparently learning to associate people with food. Being able to train an insect means that the insect can learn, implying more than simple instinct at work.

I'm not sure how one would be able to test insect intelligence, but I do think it's not studied enough in the case of the mantis.

Anthony

 
Hi.

I would suggest the "begging behavior" to be not associated with a human as such, but just with a higher perch. Mantids do this also when climbing in their cage and lunging for a distant twig. Even if you are moving, for the mantis this may just look like a approaching perch. You should not overestimate this behavior and regard ist somewhat conservatively until the opposite is proven. The stories are rather anecdotical and not scientifically proven. Anthony is right in this regard that there should be more research on this issue.

Regards,

Christian

 
The mantis I currently have is a very wounded animal. Due to a bad molt, she has lost the use of both raptor arms (one was broken so she chewed it off at the first joint, and the other is frozen in an outstretched shape). She also lost one of her back legs.

She has learned to eat mealworms off of a toothpick and drinks from a 1/4 t. measuring spoon. When she eats, she makes no attempt to grasp her food but instead eats exactly as a child would eat from a parent's ice cream cone.

While her survival instincts are clearly working here, her behavior is a modification of standard mantis instincts. She would obviously have died were she in the wild; our care and her adaptation are what have kept her alive.

This is brand-new behavior, because up until this point she was not hand-fed but was given fruit flies which she stalked and caught on her own. So the immediate adaptability along with suppression of instinct makes me believe there is at least a simple intelligence at work. I describe mantids as high-functioning insects, and that probably is the best description.

Since many people have observed aspects of mantid behavior that more closely resembles that of vertebrate animals, a study of their behavior and intelligence is definitely warranted.

 
I guess I will wade into the mantid intelligence discussion here... I completely agree that mantid intelligence has not been sufficiently researched.. it is one of the things I try to get done in my spare time when I am not working on my 'official' thesis project.

So, in 1968, Alan Gelperin reviewed some evidence for learning in mantids. Some of the notes from his article include 'the acts of catching and bringing prey to the mouth are improved by experience' and 'it is clear that the presence of a learning component [in mantid hunting behavior] makes it more complex than those of other invertebrates known at present.'

Later, Hector Maldonado showed that mantids learn to avoid flies on red disks (they got a shock if they struck these.. not very nice, but effective) and only catch flies on white disks. Not only that, but they would retain the memory for 8 days or more - in insects, 'learning' often is really just their little nerve cells get tired and they seem like they have learned not to do something - but in this case, the mantids would catch other prey types and still 'know' not to catch flies on red disks.

Cesar Gemeno and colleagues have also shown that male Mantis religiosa are more likely to approach and mate with a female when she is eating: again, the male mantid brain is capable of extracting fairly complex info from the environment (they make their move when she catches a prey item or grooms her forelegs). (Gemeno and Claramunt, 2006)

My own research also suggests that male mantids can tell when females are hungry or full, and whether or not the female is facing the male (Lelito and Brown, 2006). Presumably all of this decision making is the result of selection on males to avoid cannibalism; while not 'smart', exactly, it certainly points to strong perceptual abilities, and these are often considered the forerunner to outright intelligence.

I would point only out that when a lizard, for example, 'learns' to do something (i.e. accept an item from a human hand) to get a food reward, we view that as intelligence.. so why not an insect?

Gelperin, A. 1968. Nature 219: 399-400.

Gemeno, C. and Claramunt, J. 2006. Journal of Insect Behavior 19: 731-740.

Lelito, J. and Brown, W. 2006. American Naturalist 168: 263-269.

Maldonado, H. 1972. Physiology and Behavior 9: 435-445.

 
The surplus - and variety - of protein in the Mantid diet would theoretically make long term & relatively more developed incorporative nervous/neural evolution possible, I would think.

...much the same way that human evolution's adaptation to tool use allowed for a sustained surplus of protein that fueled our neurological evolution.

Granted, there are major, major differences between the two evolutionary processes & phyla here, but...

 
I believed each insect has its own specialty or "intelligence" in order to survive and continue for generation. i agree there are only few people doing the research for the sake of understanding the real insect world, which is a shame. As usual, people are more interested in research which relate to human, or how it benefit or affect our daily life. Actually, most of my friend only knew mantis as a bug and only 1 out of 10 people here can identify them as beneficial insect. I remember a friend from China once told me praying mantis egg cases are used as medication purpose!! Think i am a little off topic here sorry!

 
Basically, if a mantis has long wings and is a good flyer, it also has good hearing. BUT they hear only ultrasound (above 20 kHz), far above what we can hear. There are a few exceptions like Thesprotia, but overall it looks like about 80% of mantises can hear.
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I always wondered how well mantids could hear. I like loud angry rock music, and many of my mantids would sway to the vibration while it was playing.

 
Haha, that's awesome! I thought loud angry rock is mostly bass, which has pretty low frequency. Hmm, what kind of music has lots of high pitch sounds? Classical?

 
Rock music has a lot of bass and a lot of high frequency guitar. But if mantids only hear high frequency sounds, high above what we can hear, I'm guessing they were responding to the vibrations created by the bass in the music when they swayed. Well it's good to know that I haven't been blasting their little ear drums out.

 
They're probably responding to the high frequency guitars.

Do your mantises sway synchronously? It would be great if you get that on video and show us. :D

 
Not every mantis can hear, and they have a relatively simple ear (just a membrane that is sensitive to certain frequencies of vibration). I think there's a positive correlation between how well a species can fly and how well it can hear, but I'm not certain.

 
I never use ultrasonic fogger, it might be great for humidity and viewing pleasure but i think that's a little exagerated.

 
I was wondering if the ultrasonic soundwaves would aggravate or frighten a mantis... especially if it's anywhere close to the same frequency range as a bat's echolocation sounds!

 
If they were close to the same frequency, it would result in sensory adaptation in the mantid's ear... basically the same effect as if we hear a constant loud sound, and then go into a quiet room - it would take a relatively loud noise at first, to get our attention since our ear would be 'deadened' to those quiet sounds. Or imagine what it would feel like to your nose, if you had to live in someplace awful like a candle and bath store... achk!

Probably not very nice to the mantid if it is constant. :)

I have an ultrasonic fogger in my living room that I leave on constantly, but it's not near a mantid's tank (maybe 15 ft. away) so it would be safe, and it makes the room humid, which they like. They don't freak out, but now that you mention it... I should check out and see if I can figure out what the frequency of the fogger is.. I bet Dr. Yager would love this one!

"Mantids flee from ultrasonic fog-machines!" - good paper. :)

 
Is an ultrasonic fogger a humidifier?
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It is, although not all humidifiers use ultrasonics.

I have an ultrasonic fogger in my living room that I leave on constantly, but it's not near a mantid's tank (maybe 15 ft. away) so it would be safe, and it makes the room humid, which they like. They don't freak out, but now that you mention it... I should check out and see if I can figure out what the frequency of the fogger is..
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Don't quote me on this, but if I recall correctly most ultrasonic foggers use a frequency around 90,000 kHz, well out of the range of human hearing. Bats' echolocative calls can be anywhere from 20 to 120 kHz according to this webpage - however, the fogger's gonna be a steady drone w/ very little oscillation, while bats' calls are typically bursts and sweeps of very broad freq. ranges over short periods of time. Hopefully not enough to make a mantis nervous or aggro, but also something to consider in their environment for sure.

I've been dreaming up a planted viv/terr/paludarium habitat for a mantis and an orchid or two; the fogger would probably be timed to go on for a few minutes, then off for an hour or so.

 
It seems maybe someone needs to do a basic Y maze test on these buggers?

 
I think a reasonable test of "basic intellect" would be wether a mantid can hunt using its vision rather than its relexes.

Ie: will a mantis go looking for food that is stationary, recognise it and attack it. Or does it just wait for something to go flapping past before clobbering it?

Actively looking for things to eat that are not bringing attention to themselves would indicate that the insect is actually thinking about what its doing. (in my view)

My tiny orchid 2nd instar reaches out to me when I open its tank and then jumps onto my finger whenever I reach near it, but I would hardly call it clever...

Definately an interesting subject of this question, mantids really are different from the usual bugs !

 
I always found it interesting that whenever I tried to take pictures of my mantids, they would always try to grab the camera, or touch the lens. They seemed to be fascinated by personal electronics. I demonstrated this for my wife with one of my Chinese mantids. I put the mantid on my coffee table and then tried to take a picture of her. As soon as she saw the camera, she came walking over towards it. So I moved to a different location and she followed me, never taking her eyes off the camera. I decided to just leave the camera on the table and she crawled all over it, exploring it for a few moments until her "curiosity" was sated.

Is curiosity a sign of intelligence?

 
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