After a long process of detailed study and testing, scientists discovered one of the most bizarre methods of hearing in the animal kingdom. The preying mantis has only one hearing organ, which is located in a groove underneath its thorax (the middle section of its body). A teardrop-shaped groove in the thorax has a thinner covering than other parts of the mantis body, and under this covering is a relatively large air sac connected to the insect's respiratory system.
Scientists discovered that this hearing organ senses not only audible sounds, but ultrasonic frequencies. When researchers sent a bat-like ultrasonic frequency toward a preying mantis in flight, it immediately took an evasive flight path to escape the sound of the bat. One truly has to question how anyone could believe that this intricately designed organ could have evolved by a chance process, one mutation at a time.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, July 11.
