Weekend Spherical-Up: Macabre Praying Mantises, Elaborate Again-Scratchers, And Lacking Blockbusters

The praying mantis is an oddity amongst bugs. It’s massive, however deliberate and methodical in its actions, usually shifting with sluggish care because it approaches its prey. It solely strikes with lightninglike pace when it strikes – however when it strikes, there are few prey which may escape its scissor-like talons. its massive eyes and cellular head appear to provide it an oddly sentient, if not human, character, and if its romantic habits are disturbing, they’re maybe additionally one thing to which no less than some star-crossed and annoyed lovers can relate. It was due to this fact with some horror that I found that the praying mantis is, for all that it may be anthropomorphized, nonetheless a manifestation of that facet of the world which has been known as, “nature, pink in tooth and claw.” Because it seems, the larger mantises can catch birds – hummingbirds, to which nobody however probably the most spiteful may want any unwell – and eat them. The actually macabre bit is that they typically simply eat the brains. Scientific American, dependable as all the time, has all of the wow-this-is-worse-than-a-murder-hornet particulars.

– Jack Forster, Editor-in-Chief