Mantises in 100 Seconds Transcript

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Mantises are an incredible order of insects. They are 200 million years old but have only about 2,400 described species. Compare that to moths and butterflies with 180,000.

Despite that, they are actually very successful and only a handful of species are threatened. The fact many mantises are so big attests to their success, because it requires a lot of food, and a lot of energy.

The first feature you'll notice are their eyes. They actually have 5, but these other 3 eyes only detect motion and light. The two, big, front facing eyes see in 3D, which is unique among insects.

If you've looked at a mantis, you'll notice they always tend to look straight back at you, but this is actually an illusion. They have a wide field of vision, you're just seeing light absorbed in a few pseudopupils. This is sorta how that works.

Their eye color tends to change at night. This is to enhance vision, while at daytime the color enhances camouflage.

And speaking of camouflage, it's one of mantises' strengths. Without it, they'd quickly be eaten by birds and similar predators, or not be able to catch as much prey. Some mantises change color over several molts, and some, especially in stable tropical climates, have reached astounding levels of mimicry.

Mantises hunt with their forelegs. After quickly snatching their prey, they eat it alive, starting from the head. They can be found eating bigger prey than themselves, like lizards and birds.

Many mantises will engage in defensive posture when threatened, which is probably why females retain wings despite being unable to fly in most species. I witnessed this first hand last year. Males, on the other hand, usually always fly.

And then we come to the mating. Contrary to internet jokes, female mantises eat males only in a minority of cases.

After mating, the female lays the ootheca, which is at that point half of her weight. The nymphs hatch next year and very few survive. Even if they reach adulthood, most mantises only live 6 to 12 months. They have about 6-7 molts throughout their lives, where they shed their exoskeleton like other arthropods, and males are ultimately smaller than females.