Corrette B J
Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403.
J Exp Biol. 1990 Jan;148:147-80. doi: 10.1242/jeb.148.1.147.
Coordination of the complete capture sequence of the praying mantis has been studied in detail using several specially developed photographic techniques. The mantis was able to attack prey throughout a large three-dimensional capture zone by changing body orientation relative to its perch. This orientation centred prey on the median plane and brought it within an attack zone relative to the prothorax. Alignment with the median plane simplifies the attack since the prey can then be localized using only two dimensions. The attack comprised several stereotyped components which together formed a single movement sequence of all six legs. Although too rapid for visual feedback, a simple mechanism permits steering of these movements to capture prey at particular locations within the attack zone. These findings are contrasted with those from studies of mantis visual behaviour and a simple mechanism is suggested for how prey location is encoded to produce steering of the attack.
利用几种专门开发的摄影技术，对螳螂完整的捕捉序列的协调性进行了详细研究。螳螂能够通过改变相对于其栖息处的身体方向，在一个较大的三维捕捉区域内攻击猎物。这种方向将猎物置于中平面上，并使其处于相对于前胸的攻击区域内。与中平面的对齐简化了攻击，因为此时仅需利用两个维度就能定位猎物。攻击由几个刻板的部分组成，这些部分共同形成了所有六条腿的单一运动序列。尽管速度太快无法进行视觉反馈，但一种简单的机制允许对这些运动进行引导，以便在攻击区域内的特定位置捕捉猎物。这些发现与螳螂视觉行为研究的结果形成对比，并提出了一种关于猎物位置如何被编码以产生攻击引导力的简单机制。
