Praying mantis look like tiny creatures belonging to the category of insects and living in trees or hiding behind plant leaves due to the risk of attacks.
What If Praying Mantis Were The Size of Humans? If praying mantis were the size of humans, then they would be efficient fighters and horrible eaters as they would engulf a human, make deadly punctures on the skin, and cause the destruction of habitat. However, it would be challenging for them to fly due to their huge size.
These predatory insects are involved in deadly predation by attacking insects and eating them alive without waiting for them to die and devour their bodies. It is not possible for you to even imagine a praying mantis having a height of several feet because there will be a different scenario if they become equal in size to humans.
Extremely horrible eaters
They have incredible hunting skills and attack other small creatures on the planet that their tiny mouth can easily chew off. These carnivorous insects get food from insects and animals.
In addition, they can also consume smaller animals that are around 2 to 3 times bigger than their body size, including snakes, frogs, lizards, etc.
These can become horrible eaters when they get bigger as their ability to swallow other organisms increases, allowing them to engulf humans and even elephants.
It will not be challenging for a praying mantis to eat humans, which seems horrible to imagine.
Moreover, it can efficiently wipe out larger organisms that these insects usually ignore due to the inability to chew their bony structures.
Increased gravity force
They have lighter bodies and weigh only a few grams, which means there is less force of gravity on their tiny structures. It allows them to jump fast and reach prey in seconds.
However, they cannot move easily when their body size becomes equal to humans because the gravitational force of attraction on their bodies also increases.
This force keeps them closer to the ground and restricts them from reaching height. Accordingly, they cannot fly higher even though their wings cannot support heavy bodies.
In addition, they cannot make swift and accurate jumps that ultimately affect their preying potential and hunting capabilities.
Difficulty in camouflage
It is easy for smaller insects to hide behind wider tree trunks and under the curves of leaves. The small size of the praying mantis allows them to stick to the stems and even twigs when hiding.
Moreover, their body color allows them to blend with the background and hide from the sight of predators to ensure their survival.
However, they cannot hide from predators when they attain a bigger size equal to humans because they cannot use trees for camouflage purposes.
They can hide behind the trees but cannot reach the leaves and stems as they are too thin to protect and cover a human body.
Accordingly, there will be an increased risk of attack from predators leading to a decreased lifespan because other predators can easily notice them.
Make deadly punctures
The potential of biting prey will increase if the praying mantis becomes larger and gain approximately 60 inches to 70 inches of body length.
Increased size of mandibles allows these insects to become voracious predators and puncture the prey body by piercing their skin using larger teeth.
In addition, they cannot break bones, even though they cannot break a human finger due to smaller teeth that are sharp but cannot cause deeper wounds.
However, they would crush everything after gaining a height of several feet because the size of their teeth would also increase. Their teeth have razor-like sharpness, causing injuries after getting large.
These giant insects can cause bleeding wounds after biting humans and even crush their bones or cause massive destruction of body structure.
Efficient fighters for wars
Praying mantis are quite agile predators as their body structure allows them to remain alert of the surrounding activities and avail the opportunity when prey comes closer.
They rarely miss their prey because they know how to hunt them successfully. They make precise and accurate jumps, reducing the chances of prey escapes.
Accordingly, they can become efficient fighters in battles or wars if they attain a size of a few feet because they can fight with humans or other bigger animals.
Moreover, they can be trained to become part of wars and kill their opponents by capturing their bodies with their raptorial forelegs.
Increased body strength
The overall impact of the body increases when it becomes heavy because a heavy body has high impact than those having a lighter weight.
In addition, their ability to strike or punch strength against prey animals also increases. They will have a more deadly approach for organisms as they land on bodies with massive force.
The average weight of humans is around 145 to 150 pounds, which means their attacks can result in the crushing of the prey organisms due to heavy weight.
However, their speed to reach the prey decreases because heavier bodies take more time and effort to walk on the ground surface.
Praying Mantis would kill all organisms
Praying mantis are carnivores and prefer to eat other insects and animals to meet the energy requirements of their body and avoid eating plant-based foods.
They can kill smaller or a few times larger organisms than their body size. It means the options for food source increase when they become bigger in size.
Accordingly, their dietary habits can lead to the massive killing of other creatures living on the planet as these voracious eaters only fight for their survival.
They can attack many organisms, including smaller insects and larger vertebrates, which is usually avoided due to size restrictions.
Huge praying mantis cannot fly
Praying mantis can be easily preyed on by other organisms as their ability to jump away from predators decreases due to their inability to take flight or hide.
The wing’s size increases with body length but cannot support a heavy mass when the gravitational forces increase. It does not allow giant insects to fly against gravity.
An average body length of a giant Chinese mantis is around 15 to 18cm; that can fly on wings, but it is difficult for these leathery structures to take flight opposite to force from the ground.
Die of suffocation
It is not possible for a giant praying mantis to survive due to the small amount of oxygen in the atmosphere that cannot support the larger insects.
Their requirements for oxygen intake increase due to the increased number of body cells.
Accordingly, these giant insects ultimately die due to suffocation as the atmospheric oxygen level does not support these bigger insects.
Related Articles: