What's up with the eyes on mantises?

FelixA9

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I've noticed that those little black dots will follow you like a pupil. I've never noticed it on any other insect. Are all insects like that and you just can't see it for one reason or another or are mantises unique?
 

Darkant

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mantids are unique in this object......this is why they can hunt so well!
 

Navaros

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It is their pupil, I think most insects have the black dot, seen them on jumping spiders also.
 

Darkant

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yeah, well they do have the black dot, but I supose they don't follow you everywhere?

i believe this is only mantids who can do this trick.
 

Navaros

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Possibly, but the jumping spidedrs spots move around like crazy they have really good eyesight.
 

FelixA9

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Originally posted by Darkant
yeah, well they do have the black dot, but I supose they don't follow you everywhere?

i believe this is only mantids who can do this trick.

The way I understand it with jumping spiders is imagine a cone with the "pupil" at the point and the open end being attached up front. The spider can move the point of the cone around but the open end rotates in place. Did any of that make sense?
 

Wade

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It's not really a pupil, but it's sometimes called a "pseudopupil". It's an optical illusion resulting from the structure of compound eyes. Each eye is like a tube, so when you look at a mantid, you can see down the eyes that are pointed directly at you. No light reflects to you from those eyes, so it looks like a black spot, giving the illusion of a pupil. When you change position, you're looking directly at a different eye, making it look lile the pupil has moved.

Wade
 

Darkant

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i'm sure he does, but HOW?
did you read books, hear it from other people? watch TV? read it on the internet?
i also wanna know all those thing!!!
so please tell me ...........HOW?
 

Wade

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I don't know everything, but I do have access to a very nice collection of books. I forget where I originally read about the eye structure, but I did check the book "The Praying Mantids" by Prete, Wells, Wells and Hurd to see if I could find any details, and that's where I got the term "pseudopupil" :p

Wade
 

Darkant

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ok......
well that's also very bad of holland, they really suck in both insect sell, and insect book sell :(

i can't get anything in this country!!......:mad:
 

Wade

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In this country, for the most part, we have to go online or call a specialized dealer to get these types of books as well. It's not like I can just walk into a bookstore and find these either. You should be able to mail order some books from elswhere in Europe, I know many natural history type books are published in the UK and Germany.

Wade
 

Brak

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Interesting topic. When I took this picture I was wondering the same thing. When you move they turn and look at you with such intelligence its quite disturbing. Have a look.

Brak
 
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Darkant

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beautiful picture!

yeah....it's like they already know what your going to do, and they don't care...but they always know :?
 

metallica

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Originally posted by Darkant
ok......
well that's also very bad of holland, they really suck in both insect sell, and insect book sell :(

i can't get anything in this country!!......:mad:
i can't believe this!!!! you can get everything in this country!!!
on most reptile shows there is a german guy who sells books.

so stop your whining!
 
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