Mystery

[agent A]

okay well I've been wanting to ask this for a while now. My egyptian mantis male ate a cricket almost his size a few days after becoming an adult (he's long gone now, but the observation I made is still clear in my head), and his abdomen didn't swell up at all. I was astonished, how could that whole thing (he ate the whole thing) go in that tiny abdomen without stretching it (if he was still a nymph, the abdomen would be really fat)? I noticed this with all adult males, abdomen stays same size always. How does it do that? Does some stay in the esophagus? Is it an illusion?

 

[Rick]

The males abdomen is very long and thin allowing the food to sit along the length of him. At least that is my thoughts but i'm no expert. I'm sure someone will come along with a good scientific explanation.

 

[Katnapper]

The males abdomen is very long and thin allowing the food to sit along the length of him. At least that is my thoughts but i'm no expert. I'm sure someone will come along with a good scientific explanation.

I'm sure Edenmantis could tell us!

 

[PhilinYuma]

okay well I've been wanting to ask this for a while now. My egyptian mantis male ate a cricket almost his size a few days after becoming an adult (he's long gone now, but the observation I made is still clear in my head), and his abdomen didn't swell up at all. I was astonished, how could that whole thing (he ate the whole thing) go in that tiny abdomen without stretching it (if he was still a nymph, the abdomen would be really fat)? I noticed this with all adult males, abdomen stays same size always. How does it do that? Does some stay in the esophagus? Is it an illusion?

Another good observation and question, Alex, and an even bigger mystery than you might think. The crop of predatory insects like mantids extends down into the abdomen, and the only digestive juice that acts on its contents is saliva, so pretty much the whole macerated bulk of the prey gets passed into the lower (posterior) abdomen. I think that Kamakiri gave us an insight into this when he described the thorax of his decapitated (demithoraxed!) male as being hollow. Insects have more "space" in their bodies than vertebrates, whose bodies are crammed with organs. The space is occupied by hemolymph -- insect blood -- which can increase or decrease in amount (and more importanly, pressure) according to the insect's air and fluid intake/output. And of course, much of the prey's bulk is water, and once the prey is digested it passes into the hemolymph and is either used in bodily functions or excreted through the spiracles. The fecal material is mostly insoluble uric acid, but I have often wondered what happens to all the undigestible (so far as I can discover) chitin. Part of the digestive tract itself is a chitinous laticework, so it does not seem possible that it is reduced by chitinase. But then again...

Lucky Alex! As a lad, you will see the solution to all sorts of problems that puzzle me, long after I am dead!