Animal Planet

[Xjmt]

Is that the correct spelling? Praying mantids? Just asking.

[Henry J]

I dunno; I just copied it from the website. Aside from that, I'd've thought it was "mantis" (that's what's in my dictionary here).

Henry

[Xjmt]

Yeah, I've seen both spellings before but I'm never sure if they relate to the same species or are they "Kissin Kousins" or something like that.

[brian]

Praying mantis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scientific classification
Phylum = Arthropoda
Family = Mantidae
Genus = Stagomantis
Species = carolina

A praying mantis, or praying mantid, is the common colloquial name for an insect of the order Mantodea. Often mistakenly spelled preying mantis (a tempting mistake, as they are notoriously predatory) they are in fact named for the typical "prayer-like" stance. The word mantis derives from the Greek word Mantes for prophet or fortune teller. The preferred pluralization is mantids[1], though there is some usage of mantes or mantises.

There are approximately 2,300 species in the order Mantodea world-wide; most are tropical or subtropical, but several species live in temperate climates such as that of the northern United States, central Europe, and Siberia. Most Praying mantids are of the family Mantidae.

Praying mantids are one of the few insects that can turn their heads. They have excellent vision, and hunt insects (and sometimes small vertebrates) by stealth and a rapid striking attack. No mantis is poisonous.

Some texts refer to the European mantis (Mantis religiosa) as the most common praying mantis in European countries. Ischnomantis gigas is the largest mantis with 17 cm length in the female and is found in the Sahel zone of Africa. The smallest mantis is Bolbe pygmaea, which is only 1cm long when fully grown.

A gravid female praying mantis will produce a large foam mass, called an ootheca. This ootheca can contain up to 300 eggs, all protected in the foam sack. These oothecae are laid in the fall—after which the adult mantids die—and can take up to five months to hatch.[1] Some species hatch in small intervals, and hatching can take up to five weeks before all of the nymphs fully emerge. Not only do gravid females produce oothecae, infertile oothecae can be produced by females which have not been mated. These may sometimes hatch one or two nymphs, however, this is very unlikely. Some species, such as Brunneria borealis, produce oothecae through parthenogenesis. This is where a male is not needed to produce fertile ootheca; however, all the mantid's offspring of this sort will be female.

In the United States, species were first introduced from Europe and China around 1900 as garden predators in an effort to control pest populations. The Carolina mantis is the official state insect of South Carolina, and the European mantis is the official state insect of Connecticut.

I usually refer to a single specimen as a praying mantis, whereas the I would call the family of related creatures mantids. Much like how you would call a shrimp or a crab crustaceans, or a monkey or an ape primates.

[Henry J]

Re "Much like how you would call a shrimp or a crab crustaceans,..."

Unless I call it lunch...

[Xjmt]

....or dinner or soup or dip or sandwich or bait or cocktail or, or, ya know, I once had a bloody mary with a garnish of shrimp instead of some leafy green thing. Very tasty.

So, it seems that the title of Praying Mantis although in popular use isn't correct?

[Henry J]

Compound Eyes, Evolutionary Ties

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that the presence of a key protein in the compound eyes of the fruit fly (which glow at center due to a fluorescent protein) allows the formation of distinct light gathering units in each of its 800 unit eyes, an evolutionary change to an “open system” that enabled insects to make significant improvements in visual acuity and angular sensitivity.

[Xjmt]

After an article like that you can bet:

The vitamin companies are preparing a product which will improve eyesight based on that protein,

and the drug companies will be fast at work attempting to whip up batches of a synthetic version of that protein which will be on the market for the holiday season in that they obviously have been working on this for years whether they've heard of it before or not. Perscription required. Thirty pills for only $500.00.......per pill.

[Henry J]

Random critter for the day:

Fibrobacteres

Eubacteria

Euuuu!

Henry

[Xjmt]

You forgot YUCK!

[Henry J]

Oxygen Concentration In The Air Limits Beetle’s Size

The delicate lady bug in your garden could be frighteningly large if only there was a greater concentration of oxygen in the air, a new study concludes. The study adds support to the theory that insects were much larger during the late Paleozoic period because they had a much richer oxygen supply, said the study’s lead author Alexander Kaiser.

(Neat!)

[Xjmt]

Our future??

[brian]

Of course, people have gotten taller over the centuries...

[Henry J]

Comparing Chimp, Human DNA

Most of the big differences between human and chimpanzee DNA lie in regions that do not code for genes, according to a new study. Instead, they may contain DNA sequences that control how gene-coding regions are activated and read.

(Fascinating!)

[Xjmt]

Chimps do have (sorta-kinda) pointy ears.