Researchers from the University of Newcastle have demonstrated that praying mantises see the world in 3D. To prove it, they made tiny 3D glasses that they affixed to the mantises' eyes using beeswax. Their findings were published today in Scientific Reports.

University of Newcastle

After receiving their glasses, the mantises were put into a little "insect cinema" where they were positioned out of reach of a computer screen. Researchers then played images of bugs moving around on the screen to see if the carnivorous insects would strike out. The mantises would strike at the prey only if the researches changed the image to 3D, similar to how we might reach out toward something in a 3D movie. This proved that the insects do use stereopsis, or depth perception, to navigate the world and hunt.

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The 3D vision of praying mantises was first demonstrated in the 1980s by Samuel Rossel, who used prisms to confuse mantises into striking too shallow or to the side of their targets. His experiment left some doubt, however, because he didn't directly compare the mantises' reactions to 2D and 3D images.

At first, the researchers from Newcastle used the modern type of 3D glasses—the ones with clear lenses rather than the red and blue of 1950s movie theaters—which filter out certain types of circularly polarized light from each eye to create two distinct images. But the mantises would not strike out at the 3D bugs on the screen. The researchers soon discovered that the insects were too close to the screen for the modern style of glasses to work properly, so they switched to the older kind. In this case, green lenses were used instead of red because praying mantises have trouble seeing red light.

It worked! With the glasses on, the mantises would go for bugs they were shown in 3D. The research team hopes to use this information to learn more about how sight has evolved in different species, and even to create algorithms that would allow robots to see in 3D. For now, we just can't get enough of these bespectacled praying mantis photos.

University of Newcastle

Source: University of Newcastle via Gizmodo

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