Mantis eye cleaning

[dy5]

Taken in my photo studio, i.e., the dining room table. A praying mantis nymph grooming. Creobroter sp. Body length approximately 15mm.
The second photo is an enlargement showing the brush of thick hairs on the leg that the mantis uses specifically to keep its eyes clean.

Nikon D800, Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 lens

[AlP]

Very coooool.

[Adalbert]

very nice

[houstontx]

i imaged the mantis arm section shown using SEM, i thought those "feathers" may be an adaption to catch prey but your photos suggest they're used an eye brush. The mantis that can see will survive. Great photos!

[rjlittlefield]

Excellent!

The combination of dy5's overview and crop, and houstontx's SEM, make this one of the most compelling stories of functional anatomy that I can recall seeing.

houstontx, was that SEM photo sitting around from prior work, or did you shoot that specifically for this thread?

--Rik

[dy5]

Really interesting, informative SEM! It's easy to imagine those paddles doing a good cleaning job. You motivated me to look for more info, and I found this summary, quoted in a 1990 paper on the mantises of New Zealand:

"... the anterior end of the fore-femur is manipulated by the mouth-parts, and presumably moistened, and then repeatedly passed over the eyes and the upper part of the head, with slow deliberate movements ...in the best feline manner." (Faure, 1940)

Thanks, David

[MarkSturtevant]

That is rather fascinating. I certainly did not know about the brush!

Update: I'm sure I see it in one of my pictures of a Chinese mantis as well.