https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/322191851
What’s up with this? This Arizona Mantis got decapitated and quite literally disarmed about thirty hours ago, and it’s still moving! How is this possible? I’ve heard about insects that have several mini-brains throughout their body, and if that is what is happening, I’d love for an expert to explain it to me how it works, as I have seen several instances of this in other species, and I am very curious about it!
Most insects have distributed central nervous systems that allow parts of their body to use involuntary motions if the head is separated. A decapitated insect can usually stay twitchy for several minutes before the rest of their body shuts down for good.
That would make sense if it had only been alive for a very short amount of time, but it’s been 30 hours. Do you have any other ideas as to what it could be?
Most of the functions of an insect are distributed throughout the body, so I assume the only things that the mantis can’t do right now are eat, see, bite, or use its antennae. It can still breathe because its spiracles are on the abdomen, and I assume it still has a few legs left. Cockroaches, which are genetically closer to mantises than some other insects (cockroaches are more closely related to termites though), have been known to stay alive for a few days or weeks without their head. It will die when it starves or gets mortally wounded.