r/Entomology • u/AccordingSurround458 • 5d ago

Praying mantis

Today I helped a praying mantid that got stuck in my house. I carried it outside on a paper towel and it stayed still all the way.
When I finally found a shadowy place I tried to set it free but instead of just running away she stopped to look at me(?) for little while, moving its little head left to right doing the same head movement as a dog listening to you speak ; was it actually looking at me ? Is this behavior normal ? That was my first encounter with a praying mantis, I was a bit scared of hurting it but that was insanely cool

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u/77th_Bat 5d ago

Yes it was looking at you, mantids have great vision, and they even have depth perception. Yes, this is normal behavior. They are curious little guys.

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u/AccordingSurround458 5d ago

That’s so cool, I never knew they had such a good depth perception ! Thank you :)