SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the studying-praying-mantis-style-kung-fu dept.
Praying Mantises: More Deadly Than We Knew:
A praying mantis watches intently as a fly bobs by. In less than a blink, she's snatched it up. When the tape is played back in slow motion, we see the mantis pause and calibrate, almost like an experienced baseball catcher who has realized she's dealing with a knuckleball.
It's an impressive highlight reel. As detailed in a paper published this week in Biology Letters, it's also evidence that mantises strike less like automatons and more like active hunters, calibrating their attacks to more efficiently capture their prey as it flies by at different speeds.
[...] The strike of a praying mantis has two phases. In the first, the approach phase, a mantis extends its arms up and outward.In the second, the sweep phase, the mantis scoops the prey out of the air and pulls it in to eat.
Mr. Rossoni and Dr. Niven found that the mantises did indeed adjust their strike speed, according to how quickly the target was moving. Most of that modulation occurred in the approach phase — when presented with a slower target, the mantises would raise their limbs more slowly or pause in the middle, in a zombielike pose.
And if they initially miscalculated the speed of their prey, the mantises would often "correct their own mistakes" with a similar pause, Mr. Rossoni said. "Considering that some of the strikes are less than a tenth of a second, this is quite extraordinary."
It also adds to a growing conversation about what insects — from wasps that can logically infer to ants that can roll down inclines — are capable of.
"Historically, they were viewed more as almost miniature robots that were following very simple sets of rules," Dr. Niven said. "I think that there is new research coming out that suggests that that rule book might be much more complicated."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @11:41AM (5 children)
Praying Mantis are the only true ally of man in the animal kingdom. They are not slaves like livestock and pets, and they only provide a benefit to humans. They do not attack or harm people like bees or dogs, they do not carry disease like cats and they are not useless like whales. They simply live their lives among us, killing and eating pests. Truly we should all do more to recognize our One True Ally.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @12:34PM
You made me flash back to 6th grade after I had read everything I could find about mantises and begged my mom to buy some egg sacs. Never did get those.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday May 21 2020, @01:09PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai8XRf_wYjA [youtube.com]
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2020, @03:06PM
I've emailed that comment to your whale - errr, I meant wife.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday May 21 2020, @05:53PM
As are spiders which don't prey on humans, and...the god-forsaken...unnameable, inconceivable...
..House. Centipede.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday May 21 2020, @06:26PM
As an ally I think they're badly outclassed by house centipedes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata [wikipedia.org]
Harmless to humans, and happy to live alongside us. They don't spread disease, they're not aggressive, and even if you manage to goad on into biting you it's painful but not dangerous. And their peferred menu is like a who's who of bugs we don't want living alongside us: young cockroaches, bedbugs, fleas, book-eating silverfish... the list goes on and on.
Plus they live up to 7 years, so with a little care you can train them to stay out of your way.