Comments on: Paranoid Praying Mantis

By: Clinical Research Outsourcing

Clinical Research Outsourcing — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:07:58 +0000

Am seeing the praying mantis bug for the first time ,and that small black dot is the eye..! to be honest am quiet scared of bugs..!

By: annbb

annbb — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:33:50 +0000

From a really cool website I just found (see below), is some of the info there:

Mantids have triangular heads with large compound eyes and three simple eyes (ocelli) in a triangular arrangement between the antennae…The compound eyes themselves are a work of art – their faceted nature always presents the appearance of a black pupil pointed directly at you. It is such a convincing optical illusion that it was only recently that I even took note of it and made myself think about the fact that mantids do not have eyeballs or pupils. In addition to this curious feature, the entire surface of the eyes change color according to the amount of ambient light – they are light green or tan in sunlight, and chocolate brown at twilight or in low light conditions.

http://www.cirrusimage.com/mantidae_praying_mantis.htm

By: Door

Door — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:04:00 +0000

Like Jiva said if it has compound eyes, the entire ball, the huge thing can see. Its got so many tiny eyes, like in cockroaches. In cockroaches, it is not very clear to the human eye; but here the pic is so clear. Are these mantis dangerous? I mean do they attack or bite human beings?

By: Convert

Convert — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:28:19 +0000

Where are you located?, because over here in Brisbane > Queensland > Australia it’s the same. I have noticed some more than usually these stick insects in our garden on the trees. It’s quite a wet weather at the moment so I wondered if that was a reason why there were so many of them around. These eat flash of other insects, people perhaps wouldn’t even know, I saw one of them was holding and eating a common fly.

By: Jiva D

Jiva D — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:36:50 +0000

I *think* the black spot is actually a refraction of the light caused by the cells of the compound eye. I don’t think it’s actually moving it to watch you. That said, I’m told they do in fact have excellent vision and will turn their heads to look at you from quite a distance.

Cool critters!

By: annbb

annbb — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:36:45 +0000

My favorite bug creature!

By: Ron C

Ron C — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:43:54 +0000

We live in northern Virginia where several years ago on a sunny summer afternoon I noticed a commotion in our back yard. I went over to see what was happening. There on the lawn a large praying mantis was doing battle with a male cardinal. There were feathers every where. That mantis cleaned his clock and shortly the bird took a hike!