Better Start 'Praying' 'Cause This Mantis Is Watching Your Every Move

Queensland resident Lisa Vankula Donovan, known as the Wannabe Entomologist, gave her Instagram followers an incredible close-up view of the burying mantis, showing off its watchful eyes on March 6.

The burying mantis can be seen in video perched on Donovan’s hand. She told Storyful that a friend caught it and brought it to her. After their photoshoot, the mantis was released back into the wild: “I kept her for a couple of days and released her. I don’t like to keep wild-caught adult insects. I feel bad.”

Although it may look like the mantis’s eyes are following the camera’s every move, that “pupil” is actually more of an optical illusion. According to National Geographic, “the dark spot you see moving is actually just more of those light receptors that, because of the angle, are absorbing all the wavelengths of light – which is why they look black.”

The burying mantis gets their name due to the fact that the females dig small holes on the ground to lay their eggs and then refills the hole, according to the Queensland Museum. Credit: Wannabe Entomologist via Storyful