Free Republic

\ 'Tis the season when people bring a tree indoors and apparently discover they are harboring praying mantis eggs. According to a Facebook post by Officials in Erie County, Ohio, that is once again being spread around the Internet, if you see a strange walnut-like growth on the tree, you should not bring it indoors. "PSA: If you happen to see a walnut-sized/shaped egg mass, on your Christmas tree, don’t fret, clip the branch and put it in your garden. These are 100-200 praying mantis eggs!" they wrote in the post. "Don’t bring them inside they will hatch and...

Praying may save us from murder hornets after all. Wild video posted online shows a giant Asian hornet finally meeting its match: a brain-gobbling praying mantis. The clip starts with the mantis completely still as its five eyes patiently watch the hornet — an insect that can grow to 2 inches long, is known to kill up to 50 people a year in Japan, and recently arrived in the US. The mantis suddenly springs forward with its long, modified front legs, keeping a vise-like grip on the doomed hornet, which twists and tries to turn its head in feeble attempts...

A praying mantis ensured there were no flies on commuters as it hopped aboard a New York Subway train Tuesday and caused quite a stir. City Councilman Keith Powers was traveling Uptown on the 6 train, when another rider told him that his head was dangerously close to the long-legged insect. He snapped a picture of the mantis as it clung onto the metal inner frame of the subway cart and stared at passengers. Captured in its synonymous 'praying pose,' the bug seemed unfazed by worried people around it all eyeing up its sizable green and brown torso and black...

3-D Praying Mantis Vision Confounds Evolution BY JEFFREY P. TOMKINS, PH.D. * | THURSDAY, MARCH 08, 2018 In the animal kingdom, many types of creatures use stereo vision to determine the distances between them and visible objects. In humans, each of our eyes records a slightly different version of what is observed. These two different views are then accurately merged in our brains to produce a single image—computationally using the differences between the two images to allow us to visually gauge depth and distance. This process, referred to as stereo vision, isn’t unique to humans. Animals like monkeys, dogs, bats,...

The rare photograph reveals a grisly backyard scene—and the intense appetite of mantises.While praying mantises aren’t the target visitors for a hummingbird feeder, a startling photo shows that they might come around anyway—but not for the sugar water. Several years ago, New Mexico resident and former National Park Service ranger Tom Vaughan spotted a bizarre sight at a backyard bird feeder: a dead hummingbird in the clutches of a praying mantis, the insect feeding on the bird’s carcass. Nibbling on one hummingbird clearly wasn’t enough for the ravenous mantis. “After this shot, the mantis dropped the bird, crawled across the...

Washington (CNN)Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at age 83, has a new life accomplishment: namesake of a praying mantis species.

Iranian Warships Arrive Near Yemen Comes just days after U.S. announced it would send its own warships A fleet of Iranian warships arrived near the southern coast of Yemen on Wednesday in a move likely to add greater tension in a developing U.S.-Iranian standoff in the region, according Iranian military leaders. Just days after the United States announced it would send its own warships to Yemen in order to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there, a flotilla of Iranian destroyers docked in the same area. Iran’s military moves are likely to increase tensions between the two...

Researchers are studying mantises to learn about 3D vision In 1983, Samuel Rossel determined that mantises (of which the praying variety is the most famous) possess 3D vision. Piggybacking on this discovery, scientists at Newcastle University are researching how to gain a better understanding of 3D vision by taking a closer look at mantises’ vision. The team is attaching 3D glasses to mantises’ eyes to see if they will be fooled by the presence of 3D images. The researchers will attempt to compare mantises’ stereotypic vision to that of the human world and how 3D recognition has developed across various...

Minister of Interior and Justice Jesse Chacon: We do not rule out that assassinated Prosecutor was part of an extortion ring. From hero to suspected criminal in less than two months -Minister of Agriculture, Arnoldo Marquez: The British owners of the large estate El Charcote have not been able to demonstrate they own the land. The documents are not guarantee that the land is private property, but that they belong to the Agrarian Institute or the Land Institute. There goes the VP’s promise to the British Government to respect their property. -General Oswaldo Bracho: The Bolivarian Liberation front which backs...