{"id":373620,"date":"2026-10-15T05:12:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373620\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T05:12:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:12:31","slug":"ask-dr-universe-queens-gazette-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373620\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Dr. Universe – Queens Gazette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dr. Universe: What caused praying mantises to evolve with\u00a0two\u00a0front claw-like arms, rotating head, and long slender body when their ancestors are more roach-like? \u2014 Jacob, 13, California\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dear Jacob,\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0true that praying mantises and cockroaches share a common ancestor. It looked a lot like a roach.\u00a0The mantis and roach family trees split off about 270 million years ago. Over millions of years, mantises\u00a0evolved\u00a0the bodies we see today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I talked about it with Rich Zack.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0an insect scientist at Washington State University.\u00a0He told me that a mantis\u2019 claw-like front arms are grasping raptorial legs.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0used to\u00a0grab\u00a0prey.\u00a0\u201cRaptorial legs have evolved several times,\u201d Zack said. \u201cIf you look at the insects that they\u2019ve evolved in, they\u2019re predators.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At some point, some ancient insects began to grab prey.\u00a0But wrestling down a wiggly target is\u00a0hard work. Individuals with bigger, stronger legs might have had an easier time.\u00a0\u201cThe ones that had a few more spines on the legs or a little more muscle were better at holding on to the prey,\u201d Zack said. \u201cSo, they were better at surviving.\u201d\u00a0They passed on their strong, spiny legs to their babies.\u00a0Over millions of years, the group\u2019s legs got meatier and spikier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, some mantises became ambush hunters.\u00a0These predators sit very still. They blend\u00a0in to\u00a0the environment. When prey comes by, they\u00a0nab\u00a0it with their front legs.\u00a0Today\u2019s praying mantises have thick, spiny front thighs and curved shins. When the leg folds up, the shin fits into a groove on the thigh. The legs can snap open to grab prey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scientists\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know the step-by-step path mantis ancestors took to evolve that hunting style or those legs.\u00a0We have fossils with ordinary walking legs. We have\u00a0some with\u00a0specialized grasping legs. And some seem a bit like both.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other praying mantis features changed, too. The neck became flexible. The body grew long and slender. Those traits help today\u2019s mantises move and aim as they hunt. Some even adapted to hide better\u2014by mimicking flowers or leaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over millions of years, early mantis bodies\u00a0adapted. They changed to fit the environment and their lifestyle.\u00a0Grasping (raptorial) legs evolved independently at least seven times in insects.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0usually\u00a0modified\u00a0front legs. But they can be back legs or middle legs, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there are lots of other insect leg mods. Tiger beetles use running (cursorial) legs to scurry super-fast. Grasshoppers leap with jumping (saltatorial) legs. Mole crickets excavate with chunky digging (fossorial) legs. Diving beetles paddle with swimming (natatorial) legs. Head lice grip hairs with clinging (scansorial) legs. Honeybees carry pollen with pollen-collecting (foragial) legs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I guess those adaptations\u00a0give them a leg up on the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sincerely,\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Universe\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ask Dr. Universe is a science-education project from Washington State University. Visit AskDrUniverse.wsu.edu to read more Q&A\u2019s, or to send in a science question of your own \u2013 or that of a kid you know \u2013 for a chance to be featured in a future Q&A. Or you can write to: Ask Dr. Universe Washington State University ITB 2013B Pullman, WA 99164\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can see the parts of the raptorial leg here. The coxa and trochanter make up the hip. The femur is the thigh. The tibia\u00a0is the shin. The tarsus is the foot. Figure 1 from B\u00e4umler, F. et al. Journal of Morphology 284, e21590, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0Raptoblatta\u00a0waddingtonae, a roach-like insect related to early mantises. You can see its front legs were grasping\u2014but look different from today\u2019s mantis legs. Figures 1 and 2 from Dittmann, I. L. et al.\u00a0Palaeodiversity\u00a08: 103\u2013111; used with permission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zack studies shore flies (left,\u00a0Ochthera) with raptorial legs.\u00a0Mantidflies\u00a0(right,\u00a0Mantispidae) have them, too. (They\u2019re\u00a0related to\u00a0lacewings\u00a0not mantises or flies.) Other insects with this adaptation include some assassin bugs (Phymatinae), thread-legged bugs (Emesinae), giant water bugs (Belostomatidae), water scorpions (Nepidae)\u00a0and\u00a0some dance flies (Empididae). \u00a9Katja Schulz CC BY 4.0, \u00a9F.LaBry\u00a0CC BY 4.0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Universe: What caused praying mantises to evolve with\u00a0two\u00a0front claw-like arms, rotating head, and long slender body when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-373620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}