Re: How big is a praying mantis brain and how smart is it ?

How big is the brain of a praying mantis?

This question is harder than you might think. Insects have a nervous system that is very different from animals like us (animals with backbones). Because they are different, some scientists might want to say that insects don't have brains. Instead, these scientists would say that the insects have a brain-like organ, but not a real brain.

The brain-like organ of a praying mantis, and other insects, is just a gathering point for several nerves. There are many gathering points in the insect's body, so there is really nothing very special about the one that is found in the head. In fact, most insects will move about just fine if you cut their heads off. It seems that they don't realize that their head, and brain-like organ, is missing!

Still, if you want a straight answer, the brain-like organ in the preying mantis is very small. It is probably about the size of the head of a pin,
or a little bit smaller than this: *

How smart is the praying mantis?

That's another hard question. Because insects are so different from us it's not right to compare their intelligence with our own. Insects react to things that happen in a way that works for them. They really don't think about it -- they just do it. So, you could say that the praying mantis is very dumb, because it doesn't think at all. But then, it doesn't need to, which in a way is also very smart.