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New Order of Insect Found

Posted by michael on from the raid-still-kills-it dept.

dumfrac writes "A bug thought to have died out 40-million years ago is alive and well in southern Africa. It's aggressive, carnivorous, and some call it "the gladiator". And it's so unlike anything else that it represents not just a new species, but a new order. Check out the rest of the article at IOL or do a Google search for "Mantophasmatodea" which is the name of the new order."

4 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. ooh! i win the race! by Hubert_Shrump · · Score: 4, Informative

    this was reported on several months ago here let the flaming begin!

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  2. info by radiashun · · Score: 3, Informative

    click HERE for more info from Nature on this bug. Apparently it's related to the praying mantis, which is by far the coolest bug ever :-)

  3. Re:"sex, sex, sex, is all they think about" by tid242 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Here are a couple of links with much better information (if you're having trouble with German pages w/ google searches) than the original link in the story. :)

    National Geographic
    Nature

    but much seems to be lacking yet, apparently not much is known about these insects thus far...

    -tid242

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  4. not related by phriedom · · Score: 3, Informative

    It is LIKE the mantis, in that the female eats the male after mating (for 3-5 days.) But I wouldn't say its RELATED. From the article that you linked to:"The Mantophasmatodea's relation to other insects is uncertain. Klass and his colleagues suspect that they are closest to the stick insects and a small group called the Grylloblattodea, found on mountaintops in North America and Asia. Grylloblattodea was the last new order discovered, in 1914."
    Its a whole new order of bug, so it isn't very related to anything really. Kind of like cats and dogs, right?

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