How Wingless Mantises Prevent Face-Planting When They Land

Plants and Animals





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Here’s a juvenile praying mantis. Only adults have wings / Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton

Flightless animals have evolved a wondrous diversity of ways to control their movements up in the air. Cats rotate their body when falling, some lizards use their tail to change direction mid-air, and when wingless mantises jump, they use controlled spinning motions to reorient their bodies as needed. That’s how they land on their target each and every time, according to a study published in Current Biology this week.