How did they get their name?

Because of their weird body shape! Their big forearms and their upright posture resembling a praying position gave those cute buddies their common name Praying Mantis. [1]

Tell me something juicy about them!

Juicy, huh? Well here are some of the "juicier" facts I read about them today:

#1 Stereo vision

Mantises are able of stereopsis (in Greek: ste-re-os/στέρεος & op-sis/όψις, words for solid and vision). This means each eye perceives one unique image that is then sent to the brain, processed, matched with the image of the other eye and then one final image is produced. How is that helpful? It allows a creature to have depth and 3-dimensional perception of the objects in their environment.

Another cool fact considering their eyes is that each eye is equipped with almost 10,000 ommatidia (tiny photoreceptors), but not all of them have the same function. Those in the center specialize into "examining" potential prey (since they are more acute), whereas the rest are there to "catch" motion so that the insect knows where to turn its head in order to keep a moving target within its field of vision. [1, 3]

#2 This is a pseudopupil

Image by Hive account@ruth-girl

Which means that they don't have an actual pupil, but the ommatidia you see "head-on" appear dark because they are the ones absorbing light. The rest of them reflect it (This explains why their "pupil" seems to be following you while you change your viewing angle of a mantis). [1]

#3 They have one ear... on their chest!

Mantises do not have two ears, they only have one and it is located on their chest, somewhere between their mid and hind legs! The ear is split in two halves, which are connected to a single neuron that gets "activated" once either or both "halves" receive signals from their environment. [4]

#4 They are the little girl form the Exorcist (... almost)

They have a neck with such elasticity that allows them to rotate their heads at almost 180° (You do understand how helpful this "feature" is both in hunting and in protecting themselves from predators). [1, 2]

#5 Disgusting (?) cousins

Mantises are related to cockroaches and termites as Wikipedia mentions: "Kristensen (1991) combined the Mantodea with the cockroaches and termites into the order Dictyoptera, suborder Mantodea". [1, 2]

#6 Cruel predators!

Mantises feed on other, smaller insects (sometimes they turn even on their species), although it's not unusual to see them eat other vertebrates like frogs, lizards or even... birds! Their strong forearms and quick reflexes make them excellent hunters and ruthless as they are, they devour their prey while it's still alive! [1, 2, 3]

Bon apetit!

#7 They are professionals in pest control... or maybe not?

Their diet has rendered them useful to farmers that wish to have mantises as a substitute for pesticides (it is a common organic gardening practice to use insects for pest control). You can even buy Mantis eggs online, just beware of the fact that a hungry mantis won't tell the difference between a pest and a useful insect (like a bee, for example). So, they can do good as much as they can do harm. [1, 2]

#8 They can even eat their partner

Aaah! One of my favorite lines from a Greek series says:

"In my family, darling, we'd never divorce our men. We'd bury them!" (Αξέχαστη Ντένη Μαρκορά!)

I guess Dennie might have been a mantis in a past life of hers, even if she hasn't though, mantises are among the creatures that display a behavior of sexual cannibalism! During intercourse the hungry female will not hesitate to chop her lover's head off and eat it, while he is still ejaculating inside her body. Cruel as it may look, this also helps the male eject more sperm through the intense spasms of his dying body (thus increasing the number of descendants). Although it's a tactic observed mostly in species held in captivity, the exact reason has not yet been clarified. [1, 2]