mantid senses

[Johnald Chaffinch]

i've only just got my first mantids today but already i'm wondering a lot about them:

what are the two extra simple eyes for as well as the one in the middle, and if they help to distinguish light and dark on either side why would a mantis need to know this?

what do the antennae sense?

i read they have the one ear for detecting bat sound, but what else can they hear and what with?

do they have the sense of touch ( feel touch) ?

 

[robo mantis]

they can feel i know that if they get bumped in the leg they will look and see what did it

 

[Macano]

I think the male uses his antennea to "smell" the females pheremones. Not sure if the male has a use for them outside that, or if the female uses hers at all. I could be totally wrong. Good questions!

 

[hortus]

good questions indeed.

 

[ellroy]

The benefit of detecting light and dark is that they can pick up shadows etc which may be a predator....The orientation of the occelli (simple eyes) means they can judge the direction a potential threat is approaching from. Theres a bit more to it but I'm pretty sure thats the gist of it.

 

[Christian]

Hi.

As most animals, mantids use all the important senses. However, they may function different from that of verts.

1. Sight: well, no great secret: done by the compund eyes. There are zones of different sharpness, e.g. a foveal zone located in front.

2. Ocelli: these organs (3 simple eyes) are somewhat mysterious. It is presumed that they may help to orientate when flying, maybe they may percept different light frequencies. Males have always larger ocelli than females, and males are known to carry out nuptial flights. There exists a muscle which is attached to the ocelli, but nothing is known about the function.

3. Smelling, that is detecting chemical cues: done by the antennae. Often the food is slightly touched or the surroundings. Males and females can detect conspecific pheromones, important for mating. However, the loss of antennae does not alter food ingestion.

4. Tasting: located in the mouth, bad tasting prey is sometimes rejected, but hungry mantids usually "ignore" the taste.

5. Mechano- and thermoperception: receptors (trichosensilla and others) somewhat similar to the one on the antennae, located in the cuticula, usually spread over the body.

6. Hearing: the last discovered sense: located on the underside of the body between the coxae of the last leg pair (in some hymenopodids a second ear exists between the middle legs). As this ear of the tympamante type does not perceive direction it is called cyclopean ear. It is used for detecting bat sounds. It is developed well in all winged species, and better in males then in females. Mantids fly longer distances just by night, so this adaptation is quite useful. The ear is not able to distinguish the frequencies of its sensitivity range, so that may be the reason why there is a second ear in Hymenopodidae (other bats, other ears?).

Regards,

Christian

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

yeah i'd have thought the frequencies of bat sound wouldnt matter as much as the actual tempo - if the bat sounds get to a certain speed the mantis would know to dive

 

[Johnald Chaffinch]

( i thought i'd post this question here hoping to get more answers for the above questions )

has anyone noticed any abnormal behaviors in any of their mantids, like as in mental disorders?