Praying Mantids

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08 Oct 2010, 11:08 am

I have raised praying matids for about two years now, and I have noticed something interesting.

Different individual praying mantids seem to have different personalities (i.e., some being more prone to aggressive, nervous, or almost affectionate behavior). This holds true even for those from the same ootheca (egg case) and an almost identical environment.

Any thoughts? Not trying to start an argument; just throw around ideas.

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wavefreak58
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08 Oct 2010, 12:04 pm

Some pray to Allah and some pray to Jehovah?

ChrisVulcan
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08 Oct 2010, 12:45 pm

wavefreak58 wrote:

Some pray to Allah and some pray to Jehovah?

That's good!

I have seen some who seem to be pointing in Mecca's general direction.

Tensu
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08 Oct 2010, 8:19 pm

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

ChrisVulcan
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09 Oct 2010, 2:48 pm

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

Agreed. The central nervous system is truly an amazing thing. If you look at an organism like a praying mantis close up, there isn't enough room for a bundle of nerves much larger than a pin. Yet the praying mantis has to coordinate all its six limbs and sense and respond to all kinds of environmental input. It's just astonishing.

phil777
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10 Oct 2010, 2:16 am

I like insects and praying mantises, but aren't you going a bit too far? =/

Anyways, i'll believe it when we can see what goes on in their minds.

ruveyn
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10 Oct 2010, 2:36 am

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

Individual insects exhibit little intelligence individually, but as a hive or swarm they can behave in surprising ways. Insect brains (individually) are way too small to produce individual intelligence.

ruveyn

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10 Oct 2010, 4:01 am

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

It is a mistake to allocate intellect to the nervous system alone. Intelligence is the capability to confront and solve problems. A nervous system sufficiently flexible and of reasonable capacity can virtualize a situation and simulate various probable solutions until one is realized as successful. In nature life faces many problems and can be successful in producing many variations of previously successful solutions randomly and when a new problem arises one or a few of those random variations can be successful in overcoming the problem. In effect, this is a form of thinking without a mind and all life is more or less dependent on this process of thinking for survival and progress. Random solutions incorporated in the inherent structure of life thus is a type of intellect which even individual insects or even simple mono-cellular organisms may possess.

Tensu
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10 Oct 2010, 4:02 am

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

Do we really know the minimum size a brain has to have in order to display individual intelligence?

Sand
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10 Oct 2010, 4:06 am

Tensu wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

Do we really know the minimum size a brain has to have in order to display individual intelligence?

Perhaps not, but we are well acquainted with the super brains of humans that display very little if any intellect at all.

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10 Oct 2010, 4:19 am

Sand wrote:

Perhaps not, but we are well acquainted with the super brains of humans that display very little if any intellect at all.

So our species is a lot like a bunch of insecure schoolyard bullies: we're insecure about how stupid we are so we go around telling all the other species that they're stupid to make ourselves feel smarter?

yep, that sounds like us. :joker:

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10 Oct 2010, 7:03 am

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

Swarm mentality is really interesting.

ChrisVulcan
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10 Oct 2010, 3:00 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Tensu wrote:

I think humans underestimate the intelligence and individuality of many species, up to and including praying mantises.

The hive intelligence seems to hold true for other insects, especially creatures like bees and ants. Had I not raised praying mantids, I would have also assumed this to be true of them.

The problem with this theory is that mantids are generally very solitary and antisocial creatures. I've known mantis "siblings" to eat each other if left in the same container for too long. I have never tried to test the intelligence of praying mantids, but I have noticed that they seem to display individual personalities.

For instance, I have found evidence of traits or emotions like agression, nervousness, phobias, curiosity, jealousy, frustration, even what look like a form of "giftedness". Obviously, some of this is due to anthropomorphising them, but I can't deny the variations in behavior.

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11 Oct 2010, 11:14 am

I propose more observation under strict conditions. <.< And by scientific personnel. :p

(Btw, Chris, i'm an anthropology bachelor right now, but i'm thinking of doing a biology / ecology minor. This would allow me to do something closer to entomology while still doing anthropology ; archeo-entomology, ethno-entomology, paleo-entomology, etc.) :p

ChrisVulcan
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11 Oct 2010, 4:11 pm

phil777 wrote:

True. My information is far from well-documented research.

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12 Oct 2010, 12:29 am

ChrisVulcan wrote:

wavefreak58 wrote:

Some pray to Allah and some pray to Jehovah?

That's good!

I have seen some who seem to be pointing in Mecca's general direction.

I have seen some who grab bees in mid-flight and eat their heads, then their bodies. It's grisly.

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