The Insane Biology of: The Praying Mantis

Female orchid mantises (Hymenopus coronatus) from Southeast Asian tropical forests employ aggressive mimicry by resembling orchid flower petals so precisely that they attract wild pollinators at rates exceeding actual flowers.

Praying mantis species exhibit two distinct camouflage strategies: crypsis where animals blend into backgrounds, and adaptive resemblance where they evolve to look like specific objects regardless of background.

Multiple mantis species employ Batesian mimicry by resembling dangerous or unpalatable organisms: orchid mantis nymphs mimic painful assassin bugs, ant mantises resemble aggressive ants, and Mediterranean mantises (Iris oratoria) display large eyespots resembling vertebrate predators.

Praying mantises employ specialized raptorial forelegs capable of capturing prey ranging from small insects to vertebrates like hummingbirds and mice, demonstrating opportunistic predation on organisms larger than themselves.

Praying mantis mandibles function as precision cutting tools capable of shearing through tough arthropod exoskeletons and vertebrate bone, enabling consumption of captured prey regardless of protective structures.

Praying mantises possess a single centralized ear located in the ventral midline of the thorax—a “cyclopean ear”—exclusively sensitive to ultrasonic frequencies between 25-50 kHz corresponding to bat echolocation calls.

Praying mantises possess true stereoscopic 3D vision comparable to primates, achieving this with compound eyes and far smaller brains than previously thought necessary for triangulation-based depth perception.

Praying mantis compound eyes display a dark spot resembling a pupil that appears to track observers’ movements regardless of viewing angle, contributing to mantises’ eerie reputation despite being an involuntary optical effect.

Female praying mantises consume males during or after mating in 13-28% of wild encounters, with rates heavily influenced by female nutritional status and varying substantially across species.

Female praying mantises produce oothecae—protective egg cases containing hundreds of eggs encased in a hardened foam structure—representing one of the most extreme relative reproductive investments among insects.

Vision scientist Professor Jenny Reid describes cross-correlation as the fundamental algorithm underlying stereoscopic depth perception in most biological and machine vision systems, though mantis vision may employ alternative computational approaches.