Premiere: Apollo 84 - Mantis

did you know, that the, "Mantis", (an order Mantodea of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 430 genera in 15 families). is the largest family is the Mantidae mantids. Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They have triangular heads with bulging eyes supported on flexible necks. Their elongated bodies may or may not have wings, but all Mantodea have forelegs that are greatly enlarged and adapted for catching and gripping prey; their upright posture, while remaining stationary with forearms folded, has led to the common name praying mantis. The closest relatives of mantises are the termites and cockroaches Blattodea, which are all within the superorder Dictyoptera. Mantises are sometimes confused with stick insects Phasmatodea, other elongated insects such as grasshoppers Orthoptera, or other insects with raptorial forelegs such as mantisflies Mantispidae. Mantises are mostly ambush predators, but a few ground-dwelling species are found actively pursuing their prey. They normally live for about a year. In cooler climates, the adults lay eggs in autumn, then die. The eggs are protected by their hard capsules and hatch in the spring. Females sometimes practice sexual cannibalism, eating their mates after copulation. Mantises were considered to have supernatural powers by early civilisations, including Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, and Assyria, Insects have appeared in mythology around the world from ancient times. Among the insect groups featuring in myths are the bee, butterfly, cicada, dragonfly, praying mantis and scarab beetle, Insect myths may present the origins of a people, or of their skills such as finding honey. Other myths concern the nature of the gods or their actions, and how they may be appeased. A variety of myths tell of transformations, such as between the soul of a living or dead person and a butterfly in Japan. Finally, insects appear as symbols of human qualities such as swiftness, or as portents of forthcoming trouble; accordingly, they may appear as amulets to ward off evil. The Kalahari Desert's San people, tell of a bee that carried a mantis, across a river. The exhausted bee, left the mantis on a floating flower, but planted a seed in the mantis's body, before it died. The seed grew to become the first human, The mantis was revered in southern African Khoi and San traditions where man and nature were intertwined. Several ancient civilisations considered the insect to have supernatural powers; for the Greeks, it had the ability to show lost travellers the way home; in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead the bird-fly, is a minor god that leads the souls of the dead, to the underworld, in a list of 9th-century BC Nineveh grasshoppers buru, the mantis is named necromancer buru-enmeli and soothsayer buru-enmeli-ashaga as, standardz, hahahahahaha, :) #edio