Mantis stories
Mantis stories
How they hunt, eyes that see in 3D, an ear for dodging bats, parasites inside the body, fossils from the age of dinosaurs, and the martial art and old sayings people made about the mantis. Six articles based on research and records.
How does a mantis hunt?
High-speed camera studies of the front-leg strike, how often males really get eaten during mating, and records of mantises catching birds and fish.
Read → Story 2The experiment that put 3D glasses on mantises
Tiny colored filter glasses stuck on with beeswax, fake bugs on a screen, and a kind of 3D vision that works differently from ours.
Read → Story 3Dodging bats with an ear on the chest
A single ear in the middle of the chest, not discovered until 1986, and males that spiral down when they hear bat ultrasound.
Read → Story 4How does a horsehair worm lead a mantis to water?
Mantises that become drawn to the polarized light off water, horsehair worms carrying over 1,400 mantis genes, and why people don't need to worry.
Read → Story 5Mantis fossils from the age of dinosaurs
A 10 mm mantis from Brazil 110 million years ago, a nymph in amber, and when mantises split from cockroaches and termites.
Read → Story 6Mantis kung fu, the mantis that stopped a cart, and the wart myth
The legendary founder of Mantis kung fu, the original meaning of the mantis that blocked a cart, the medicine sangpyocho, and myths about the name.
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