ABOVE: Mantis wearing 3-D glasses
NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, UK
Researchers fitted African praying mantises (Sphodromantis lineola) with 3-D glasses to study how the insects perceive motion, according to a paper published in PNAS yesterday (December 9).
Animals detect movement in two ways. One is through first-order motion perception, the detection of changes in light over space and time. This can be seen “when a dark bug moves against a bright background,” the researchers write in the paper. The other method, second-order motion perception, is more complicated. Instead of changes in light, it involves more-subtle alterations in contrast across a static background, such as when “wind creates waves of movement over a grassy field,” according to another study.
Because most movement involves changes in light from first-order motion, the authors of the new paper wanted to understand why second-order perception may have evolved. Animal behavior researcher Vivek Nityananda at Newcastle University in the ...
