Stonetribe

Aww man the twilight zone? When I was little just the intro music would scare me to death! By the way, cockroaches are harmless to humans. Their actually beneficial in some ways!

Awesome, I have new cover art now!

I cant wait For pikmin 3 Pikmin was my childhood! namely because It was the only "New" game my over strict mother would let me play But I still love it

Was it the first or second?

Paying my respects...

I LOVE water bugs! They are so cute, especially when they are little. I once found a few of them in the neighborhood pool. Very fun little buggers.

See? This guy has the right attitude.

so do they carry any sort of diseases? I fell like something thats crawling around in still water all the time might

No, there not poisonous in any way.

I sense a hint of resentfulness from you. I'm a good sport about these things but my insect followers? Not so much. The water bugs said they would behave when I asked. But just in case, well I'm sure you take showers as apposed to baths right?

Ha ha ha, yeah that's the usual reaction for when I post the water bug highlight.

Here's an insect that makes me a little afriad of lakes and ponds, the Water Bug.

As the name suggests, water bugs are aquatic insects that usually reside in fresh water habbitats and can be found all over the world excluding polar regions. With a life span of about a year, they usual sport a brownish color and can often be identified by their leg possitions with their front pair of legs stretching outwards as opposed to their two hind legs stretching backwards. They are exellent swimmers, which is a good thing as many of them are predators, usually hunting other invertebrates. The larger species however, regularly prey on small fish, frogs, and salamanders. Useing a piercing mouth part called a rostrum, they stab their prey and then suck up the liquids inside. With it, they can easily pierce through human skin, being more painful than a bee sting. This has earned them the nickname "Toe biter" Here's an example of how big they can get.

Your very welcome. Other names that I found it to go by are wandering violin mantis and Indian rose mantis, in case those names might ring a bell.

Whoops, I ment to include this in my mantis highlight. I'll edit it in later but ima post it here just in case. Here's a video to give you but a taste of the Praying Mantis's excellent predatory prowess.

D:

that is the coolest thing I've ever seen D: how does something that cool even even exist? I've never seen anything other than deep sea fish look that cool.

EDIT: double ninja'd XD

Yes, for centuries the praying mantis has captivated the minds of countless people with their majestic appearance and fascinating behavior.

Wow, i'm really surprised to learn so much about the praying mantis. Very nice job indeed Stonetribe, you did your homework.

Glad you enjoyed it! Stick around, I'll be doing tons of other similar highlights on various other bugs.

It took a deal of digging, but I think I found it. would it happen to be called the Ornate Mantis or the long name Gongylus gongylodes? Here's a picture.

Pretty cool looking if you ask me.

Stoney perhaps you can help me with something. I used to collect these oversized trading cards that had different types of animals with all kinds of awesome facts on them. I remember there was this one really interesting exotic insect who's name escapes my mind. It had a rather long and out of the way name so forgive me. Anyway as for a description. I believe it was said to be related to praying mantis's and varied between brown and green. It hangs from branches and has large flat front limbs that allow it to very convincingly imitate a hanging leaf. I believe it is carnivorous and I think it lives in the amazon, I could be wrong about that though. Any idea as to what it could be? I would really appreciate any help this has actually been bugging me for months.

Hmmm, I can't say I have heard of this particular insect and the details you provided aren't fairing well with any search engines. Might you be able to tell my what the trading card series name is? Then I should be able to find it online and most likely some sort of gallery including every card.

I was briefly trained in Praying Mantis as part of my Wing Chun training. It is a fun style. It focuses on breaking and trapping in the opponents guard and fast accurate strikes (which is why my sifu decided to teach me it along side Wing Chun). If you watch that video, they are actually hitting mostly pressure points and vital areas.

That said, the praying mantis's popularity in Asia has lead to unfortunate gambling using two praying mantii in a cage match. (You can actually see this in a Bruce Lee movie, Enter the Dragon) Insect fighting in general is popular in China. It is unfortunate that any two creatures would be unwillingly made to fight one and other.

This was extremely interesting. I thank you bugmaster Stonetribe.

Glad you think so. I didn't think anyone here would be familiar in mantis Kung fu (unless you watched that karate panda movie) much less have experience in it.

Bravo! That pink mantis is pretty! Oh wow!

Only a three month lifespan?! I was thinking how neat it would be to keep one as a pet, but that three month lifespan...I know I'd totally get attached to it and have my heart broken. Nature is cruel!

I know some gardening shops sell manti egg sacks to hatch little ones for your garden to eat pests. They look like little grey styrofoam blobs!

Yes, praying mantises are incredibly benificial to humans as they eat countless critters that are harmful to us. There is even an urban myth that it is illegal to kill praying mantises since they are so helpful as well as their religious appearance. It's not true of course, as much as I'd like it to be.

Introducing the forums local arthropod overlords (that's me) favorite insect of all time the Praying Mantis!

The Praying Mantis can be found world wide in any temperate or tropical habitat. Its name is derived from the stance of its two forearms, which appear as if it were in prayer. It is sometimes mistakenly spelled Preying with an "e" because they are efficient hunters. Praying Mantis's sport large compound eyes and with it, superior vision, being able to see up to 50 feet away. That's not much too us but most insects are lucky if they can see a mere five or ten feet from where they stand. The only problem with the Mantis's eyes are that since they are so close together, they may offer problems with depth perception. To compensate for this, the Mantis will sway from side to side in order to measure whatever it's looking at, to the background behind it. If you look at a Mantis closely and see it rocking back and forth, be ready, as it may about to jump on your face. Praying Mantises also own a pair of wings that function not unlike many other insects. Though it varies from species to species, most Mantis's ability of flight are mediocre at best due to their unusual body shape.

However, the Praying Mantis's most distinguishing and eye catching feature are their elongated spine ridden forearms. Praying Mantises are strictly carnivorous and as mentioned above predators, and unnervingly deadly ones at that. First off, almost all species of Mantis boost excellent camouflage suited to their environment. Mantises that live close to the ground are usually a brownish color to blend in with the dirt and fallen leaves. Mantises that live on plants or trees will have an expected shade of green. A tree dwelling mantis may even further this disguise by swaying back and forth in time as to mimic the leaves around it blowing in the wind. (What do ya know, I suppose they have two reasons for swaying back in forth) Their are even Mantises that are adapted to hunting on flowers that can sport elegant spots or bright shades of a color, like this.

These various forms of camouflage are a great aid in their hunting in addition to staying undetected by other, bigger predators. It's only a matter of time until a suitable meal comes in range of the mantis. Once the time to strike arises, they lash out to grab its prey with their two forearms with lightning speed (1/20th the speed of a blink of an eye to be exact) each of which has hundreds of spines attached to impale the victim. Once in the grip of a Praying Mantis, there is little one can do but hope that by some miracle the Mantis may lose its grip. Mantises are patient when hunting, but not when eating as they began to chow down as soon as they hold their catch in their forearms, almost always as the prey is still alive. Their table manors aren't all bad though, as they will carefully groom each forearm when finished, most likely to keep chunks of food from impairing their grip on its next victim. When snack time is done, they retreat back to the same spot or find another and begin the process all over again.

The Praying Mantises hunting methods are so effective, that an entire form of martial arts has been invented and stylized after them, check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0wRqR9J8WA

Now I'm sure all of you have heard the mantises methods of "coupling" and the certain consequences it has for the male Mantis. To my knowledge, the female will attempt to devour the male if she hasn't recently eaten. However this is a tad exaggerated at times and more often than not, the male will walk away head and all. In fact Mantis courtship has sometimes been observed to involve a number of dances and rituals that would rival other animals known for their romantic mating methods.

Even through their fierce predatory skills and sometimes fatal relationships, Praying Mantises make surprisingly superb pets! Pet stores don't usually stock them so most Mantis pets are found outside. They may shy away from their owners or try to fake you out with their forearms as they (and almost every other animal with any sort of survival instinct) know that big things eat little things. They get used to humans as well as living in captivity fast though. After awhile, they are able to recognize their owners face. They can even be trained to eat pieces of meat off of tweezers. They don't need much space, enough to be able to move about and hunt. I find that plastic containers like this are perfect.

http://www.referralc...orage box 2.jpg

Just drill multiple air holes in the lid and fill the container about 1/8th of the way with dirt. It's also highly recommended that you put some foliage in their to help the mantis feel a bit more at home and not as vulnerable as he would in just an empty tank. Sadly the only drawback for the mantis as a pet is their relatively short life spans being about three months, so if you do find yourself owning a mantis, try not to get too attached to him.

Aww man, you guys have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy this one.

Can both of those chemicals be produced without the mass genocide of fireflies?

luciferase and luciferin (luciferin is found in luciferase by the way, I prolly should of mentioned that earlier) can be made through the use of genetic engineering for any number of scientific and medical applications, so you can ease your concerns.

I loved the firefly highlight, Bugmaster! I had no idea that firefly light is the most efficient in the world. I'm kind of curious why bioluminescent chemicals aren't being studied more, as light created by an efficient oxygen catalytic reaction seems like it would have a lot of potential for green industry.

On the contrary, luciferin and luciferase (another chemical important in firefly light production) have and are being researched as they present multiple medical and scientific uses.

Fixed the image showing an example of a 3 horned rhinoceros beetle. Also, Fireflies.

Also commonly known as the Lighting Bug, the Firefly isn't a fly at all, but rather a beetle. Fireflies can be found in any non-artic region of the world, but prefer hummid and moisture abundent habbitats. Most firefly adults are assumed to feed on plant pollen and necter, or eat nothing at all considering their short life spans. A few species of fireflies are carnivorous and exclusivly eat other species of firefly by attracting them through immating the flashing pattern of a willing mating partner. Firefly larva on the other hand are usually carnivorous and eat small mollusks.

The most distinguishing feature of the firefly is its ability to great a variety of glows and flashs. This is known as bioluminescence and they can do this thanks to a substance located in their abdomen callled Luciferin. In a nut shell, Luciferin is a heat resistent substance that will light up when exposed to oxygen. All the firefly need do is take in air, and direct it into the proper organs. As if this isn't interesting enough, Firefly produced light is the most efficient light in the world. This is because 100% of energy emited is light. A light bulb in comparison, emits 10% of energy as light and the rest as heat. The main reason Fireflies flash around in the first place is to locate a proper suiter for courtship. It also serves as a warning to potential predators that they are distasteful and in some cases, poisenous to a degree

Also this, because I'm a sucker for these kind of songs

Hope you like this bug highlight Rosewind!

My guess is that this thing is an expedition of sorts and that olimar has come with, but just isn't doing any field work like these four new guys. Honestly, I think olimar deserves some kind of vacation seeing as how he crash landed on an alian planet, struggled to survive and escape, only to find that when he does get home the employment he works for has gone bankrupt and is sent straight back to the planet he almost died on to collect treasure in an attempt to save his company by selling it all for comercial gain. If he did have to go back again, I don't think it would be unreasonable for him to want to sit out on the whole adventure part and just do whatever else needs doing.

Pikmin 3 showcased at E3 motherbuckers!!! Revel in the glory that is Nintendo's greatest franchise!!!

name='Rosewind' timestamp='1338787257' post='204719']

I came to this topic expecting something about bugs, and I was disappointed!

Way to go, Stoney.

Pikmin? I've never understood the hype behind it. I played it once and it was okay, but that's just my opinion about it. My favorite title from the GC? Hmm, I'm not sure. I remember playing Metroid Prime and being amazed by it. I'll go with that!

Metroid had some buggy type critters in it!

You should try pikmin 2. A lot of people who played the first and thought it was kinda cool but not great played the second and adored it. The second is much more enjoyable than the first. (Not that the first was bad in any shape or form )

Those beetles are fascinating critters! Thank you for the latest spotlight, Bugmaster Stoney!

May I request you do fireflies next? Thank you!

(I know they're not true flies, but beetles. Oh yeah, look at that! Rosie is smart with her bug knowledge!)

Sure thing.

Fillys and gentlecolts, please give a warm welcome to the Rhinoceros Beetle.

The Rhino Beetle is found in tropical rainforests in Central and South America, but can live as far north as Mexico as well as on some Caribbean islands. They are among the largest beetles in the world, often growing more than six inches in length. They are herbavores, eating necter, tree sap, and various fruits. Their most distinguishing feature is the massive horns donned atop their heads. Some species have only one horn while others may have two or even a lower third horn parralell to the upper ones, like this.

Now, despite their fearsome appearence, they are completely harmless to other creatures, much less hummans. Infact, even though their horn is unable to sting or harm in any way, it's collosial size is often enough to scare away potenial predators. Rhinoceros Beetles mostly use their horn to dual with others for feeding areas or mating rights. Only male Beetles will compete with each other as females horns are much less significant. When competing, two Rhinoceros Beetles will use their horns to try and flip one another onto his back. Whoever accomplishes this first is the victor.

Here's the cool part. Rhinoceros Beetles are the strongest animal on this earth! Now your probably thinking, "hold on a second bugmaster stonetribe, didn't you just say that these guys were harmless? Besides, I'm pretty sure my cat could bench press more than this thing." Now both of these statments are true but what you probably don't know is that strength is measured by how many times a creature can lift times its own weight. Rhinoceros Beetles have been recorded to lift up to 850 times its own girth. That would be the equivilent of an averege sized humman being able to lift and toss a 65 ton tank! Take a moment to put that into perspective. Even something as burly as an elephant is only able to carry 25% of its own weight.