Ultrasonic hearing of the Praying Mantis

The ear of the Praying Mantis acts like an early intelligence system against bats ready to attack. By this means, the bug is able to immediately escape his enemy by an effective maneuver in spite of the speed of the bat.  This system in the Praying Mantis works like the electronic systems in war crafts. There can only be one explanation of such a complex system: Creation.

Dr. David Yager, one of the neurologists that examine the sound and hearing systems in living beings for many years in University of Maryland, found that a bug called the Praying Mantis had a very special hearing system that did not exist in any other living being. (Yager, D.D. and Hoy, R.R. (1986) The cyclopean ear: A new sense for the praying mantis. Science 213: 727–729) The latest experiments made on the bug have resulted that the hearing system of the creature is far more complex than previously thought.

The Praying Mantis is a bug that has only one ear. This single ear is in between the leg bumps on the bug’s chest. With this ear, they can hear sounds with high frequencies like more than 20.000 hertz that cannot be heard by human beings. This ultrasonic ear is a very effective early warning system against bats. Bats send sound waves around. These waves that hit the objects around them and return to the bat act like a sort of ultrasonic radar. This ultrasonic radar is very useful for finding their routes and searching for prey. The locations of moving creatures are easily determined by the bat.

The Praying Mantis also has a similar ultrasonic system and they can easily sense the existence of a bat with the use of these ultrasonic radars. The bat and the Mantis are like war pilots equipped with high technology, able to watch each other’s movements on the radar.
 

Scientists who examine these two creatures with superior creation realized that a bat attacking a Mantis has begun to emit signals with increasing frequencies as it got closer to the bug. And they observed that the Mantis kept its position, despite the oncoming danger, until the ultrasonic signals coming from the bat reached to a certain frequency. In the moment that both are in the air and the bat is about to crash the Mantis, the Mantis lunged downwards and ruled out the bat’s attach with a difficult dive. This sudden maneuver looks just like the maneuver a pilot makes when trying to escape from an oncoming war craft.

When the Mantis quickly comes down, it draws spiral lines in the air by turning in the air and keeps flying by finding its balance just before crashing the ground. The low maneuver ability of the bat prevented it from chasing it downwards.

The scientists, who observed this examined how the Mantis was able to make such a sudden dive. In order to understand what is going on with the hearing and nervous systems of the bug, they placed elect rots on the nerve cells of the bug. They swing the Mantis with elect rots on its head from the ceiling and let loose a bat. They measured up the signals sent from the hearing organ of the Mantis to the brain.

While observing the signal records, scientists found something very surprising. According to this, the hearing nerve is deactivated just before 300 milliseconds (millisecond is one in a thousand of a second) before the crash and the signals from the ear to the brain is cut off. (National Geographic; Praying Mantis Uses Ultrasonic Hearing to Dodge Bats, 19.10.2002) Following to halt of the signals, the Mantis begins the dive and is saved from being prey.

The scientists think that the auditory nerves in the ear give the command for a sudden dive.

Allah creates in a unique way

The Mantis’s ultrasonic ear that does not exist in any other living being is a perfect example of superior creation. The ear that turns the sound waves that come from the outside world into electric signals, the nerve cells that communicate these signals to the brain and the brain make the system work in complete harmony.

In order for the system of the bug to work, all organs have to exist in one and the same time, in a perfect manner and in complete harmony with one another. In the case of the absence of any one of these it is impossible for the system to work.

Allah Who created the world and millions of living beings in it from nothing and Who is the Lord of all that exist, created the Mantis bug with all the systems it possesses in a perfect manner. Allah reveals in the Qur’an:

“He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. He does not have a son and He has no partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined it most exactly.” (Surat al-Furqan, 2)

Fake flowers of the forest: Mantis

As the Mantis bug protects itself against enemies with the use of this ultrasonic ear; it uses this superior characteristic also for hunting. The Mantis that preys on little bugs determines how far the living beings are from them through their ears. The Mantis camouflaged in a leaf motionlessly catches them with a sudden attack when the prey gets close.

They are known as the fake flowers of the forest because of their sophisticated appearances. For example, a type of Mantis called the Hymennopus opens up its bottom arms and raises its oval shaped tail up to imitate the leafs of a flower shaped like a crown. As a result, it cannot be distinguished from the flower it sits on. No doubt, the Mantis being such a superb expert of camouflage is not by coincidence. Allah created this living being, together with millions of other beings, with a special structure and brought into existence by the command of “BE.”