A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
mantis religiosa
This one was sitting on my floor below my desk. A real poser who loved to see himself in the reflection of my lens. It was intriguing to see how his eyes followed me. The session delivered this perfect portrait.
Spotted on Jul 14, 2009
Submitted on Jul 14, 2011
17 Comments
I just had a very interesting read about the Praying Mantis, the mantis religiosa in particular...."Sexual cannibalism occurs most often if the female is hungry. But eating the head does causes the body to ejaculate faster."...(yah...)
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/no...
Hi, I guess, it does, because every arthropod has complex eyes. Crabs belong to them as well as praying mantis. Maybe it's because their eyes are so big that we see this effect mainly in their eyes...
Hi, I guess, it does, because every arthropod has complex eyes. Crabs belong to them as well as praying mantis. Maybe it's because their eyes are so big that we see this effect mainly in their eyes...
Peter, does the same apply for the eyes of some crabs? See my last spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/690...
I don't understand how you can study beings initially through a microscope. Get out there and meet and observe them. Be wondered and then ask questions why this is happening, then research & maybe use your microscope to find out the details. I'm not even a biologist, I'm just a fan of nature. Though a microscope is one of the things I would love to have, yet very hard to get here. I would love to take the next step and enter microphotography.
That's right. Even biology students aren't interested anymore, looking through high tech microscopes , changeing DNA-sequences, forgetting about biology as the science of living things. Not just of molecules.
Thanks for the info, Peter. I'm learning here! And yes, I understand you very well, people thinking you're crazy...In a country where people rather take thousands of shots of themselves in various positions, I'm quite an outcast taking macros of insects.
I guess it's more an absorbtion of the little ommatidia which are the little fragments of compound eyes. So if you look from a special angle, the light ist not reflected but absorbed by a few of them.
I haven't read an explanation for that phenomenon yet, but I guess it's because of the tube-like shape of the ommatidia. It depends on from where you look into the tube. If you do it straight, you'll see nothing, but from an angel you'll see the inner sides of it. Since there is a lense in every single ommatidium, this comparison might be quite simplified, but maybe it hits the point... I watched my little mantis for long times, moving my head from right to left and back, making people watching me think I'm crazy...
I didn't know that. So the black spots are absorbtions from the camera in front of him? I do see they don't have eyeballs which can rotate, but I thought the black spot was somewhat their iris which they move allover the static eyeball, since it was always directed to me & the camera. Interesting.
Hey Tom, you know that the "following eyes" are just refelctions, or bett: absorbions, in the mantis' unmoving complex eyes? Just wanna make sure ;-)
Very nice shot.
Thanks for the nice comments! Keeps me going.
Cool close-up
Great picture!
Lovely
Impressive macro. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
fab close up!