However, if a 30 cm mantis existed, it would be known to science. This is a fact, I'm sorry. It is a difference if you find a species in a collection (most species are "found" in existing collections by taxonomists, by the way, and not directly in the wild) which may be slightly larger than the known ones, say 18 cm or so, and finding one of 30 cm. There
isn't many habitat left, by the way. Not as much as to find a 30 cm mantis. A species of that size would require a rather large area of distribution, not a small remote valley somewhere in one of the few remaining remote areas. However, I seem to talk against walls here. If you decide to ignore scientific truth and decide to believe in Wikipedia rumours, just do it. I won't take more of my precious time to explain myself and why I know what I'm talking about. Take it or leave it, I don't have any problem with this. It seems to me that some people think they have eaten the wisdom of the world with spoons just by googling a few weeks through the www. Forget all the literature! Forget all science! Forget the skills of long-term experts and taxonomists! Believe the stoned guy who saw a 30 cm mantis in his opium halo some 70 years ago! That's real!
I just typed a huge reply and internet explorer conked out when I opened a new tab ¬_¬
- anyway, just to say that your first quote is not "fact" at all in my opinion. I'm pretty sure that fact against hundreds of species has led to be common knowledge in other areas, and pure wrong in others. Coelocanths are 2m long fish which were apparantly extinct due to a whole multitude of reasons, one being their inability to adapt and survive,which was bollox as we know, this is a large fish which is very much still alive and sold in south american, south east asian and south african markets. Giant squid were supposedly rumours, live specimens and dead ones have been found and kept, weirder still, is that after they said nothing (invert wise) can get bigger (or faster) than a giant squid due to oxygen and bouyancy/skeletel constraints, they find colossal squid which are bigger, more aggressive and faster!
Every year we find new species, big ones, small ones etc. birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians etc. In vietnam alone hundreds of species, large ones included, are discovered every year. Vietnam is by no means a deserted island either.
'In 11 previous expeditions to the rainforests, Murphy and co-workers have
identified three dozen new varieties of these reptiles and amphibians that no
one suspected even existed. Other scientists on the research team have also
catalogued a treasure trove of new insects.'
"It happens more often than you think — vertebrates once steadfastly believed not
to exist are suddenly discovered or rediscovered. In fact, about 40 percent of
all recognized mammal species have been discovered in this century. Most of
these are bats and rodents, but there have been larger, more varied species,
too, like the Komodo dragon monitor lizard (Indonesian Islands, 1912), the giant
forest hog (East Africa, 1902), the pygmy chimpanzee (Congo, 1929), and the Vu
Quang ox (Vietnam, 1992).
In 1976, a 15-foot shark called megamouth was identified, representing a
completely new species, genus and family." - Thomas Ropp. Arizona Reporter.
In terms of range/distribution, there are cases where a lot of isolation, allotropic or otherwise, has occured. By no means does a large mantis have to have a large distribution, it is highly possible that through any form of speciation that a novel (or no so novel) trait such as gigantism or just being large, will have much benefit in a certain area, such as one with fewer predators and more prey abundance etc.
It was only in 1999 that Shangri-La was supposedly "discovered" - this being a mythical area now known to science. Will copy and paste a bit :
"But it is verdant, it is a kind of paradise and it is hidden deep within
Tibet's Himalayan Mountains in a monstrously steep,
gorge-within-a-gorge. There is no record of any human visiting, or even
seeing, the area before.
Tucked beneath a mountain spur at a sharp bend of the Tsangpo River,
where the cliff sides are only 75 yards apart and cast perpetual
shadows, the place failed to show up even on satellite surveillance
photographs of the area.
"If there is a Shangri-la, this is it," said Rebecca Martin, director of
the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Board, which sponsored the
trek. "This is a pretty startling discovery -- especially in a time when
many people are saying, 'What's left to discover?' "
Tentatively named by the explorers the "Hidden Falls of the Tsangpo"
and located in a forbidding region called Pemako that Tibetans consider
highly sacred, the elusive site was reached by American explorers Ian
Baker, Ken Storm Jr. and Brian Harvey late last year, though the
society did not make its confirmation of their success official until
Thursday.
In addition to a spectacular 100-foot-high waterfall -- long rumored,
but until now undocumented -- they found a subtropical garden between a
23,000-foot and a 26,000-foot mountain, at the bottom of a
4,000-foot-high cliff.
It's the world's deepest mountain gorge, Martin said.
"It's a place teeming with life," Storm said in a telephone interview
from his office in the Minneapolis suburb of Burnsville. "It's a
terribly
wild river, with many small waterfalls, heavy rapids and a tremendous
current surging through. Yet there are all kinds of flora -- subtropical
pine, rhododendrons, craggy fir and hemlock and spruce on the
hillsides -- it's lush. Just a tremendous wild garden landscape."
The animals there include a rare, horned creature called the takin,
sacred to Tibetan Buddhists... article continues"
There are several species of fish and frog endemic to certain lakes, streams and pathces of forest, so one cannot limit the range by lack of evidence for it...
Anyhow, there's a lot more, and if you want, i can request in-depth analysis of gigantism bug theory from a world leading professor if desired.
