Insect Aerobatics: How Mantises Control Spin For Targeted Jumps

Plants and Animals





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Not just on the dancefloor… the praying mantis can throw some crazy shapes in mid-air. Malcolm Burrows, Author provided

Praying mantises are notorious – both for their deadly striking behaviour that they use to capture prey and for the gruesome female habit of eating their partners after mating. But their speed, agility and accuracy at jumping has not been widely recognised – until now. New research in Current Biology shows that the mantis jump is something rather special.