The Colorful, Shapeshifting Wonder of the Amazon's Praying Mantises | Leo Lanna and Lvcas Fiat | TED

Leo Lanna: "The Amazon is the center of the world."

Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum shared this quote,

and I deeply believe it.

And now we're taking you there.

A journey into an alien universe.

It is the heart of our planet,

where the core of our biodiversity thrives

with countless eccentric and mysterious life forms

waiting to be discovered.

But here's the twist.

We're actually taking you into the Amazon rainforest at night.

Lvcas Fiat: When night’s veil covers earth,

rainforest becomes a new dimension

where our spectacular and ephemeral reality arises.

It is when darkness falls

that this imperiled kingdom flourishes with life beyond our imagination.

I am with Leo, alone on a trail at a national reserve.

It is pitch dark.

In the deep silence,

we can hear a chorus of tree frogs and the footsteps of tapirs.

The decayed leaves and branches crunch under our feet.

It is hot and humid,

and the shimmering stars watch us through the dense canopy.

When we turn on our flashlights, there is life all around us.

LL: Every single night, as soon as the rainforest is covered by darkness,

a new world emerges, bursting with life.

Fantastic animals that are real,

extremely alive and endangered.

Boa snakes and kinkajous, opossums and tarantulas,

salamanders and moths.

Animals that one might see once in a lifetime,

as every night, the ancient and endless forest life changes.

I'm a scientist, Lvcas is an artist.

And we've been working together for six years.

Our expeditions take us and our partners into the wild.

And within this alien world of tropical rainforests,

we’re here to show you the creature that we’ve fallen completely in love with:

the praying mantis.

Silent and scentless.

Powerful and patient sage.

Our guide on this journey through the darkness.

LF: So why the praying mantis?

(Laughs)

Well, praying mantes dazzle us with their huge eyes,

their tweezer-like legs,

their hypnotizing swagger.

Many of you might be afraid of insects.

We used to be afraid too.

But as we learned more about these tiny, mighty beings,

our fear turned into passion.

The search for the praying mantis became a gateway

into a labyrinth of wonders

in which every corner had something new to discover

and get inspired.

These are portraits of a variety of praying mantis

specifically from the rainforest of Brazil.

Which one do you identify with the most?

(Laughter)

Each of them could easily be a character in a sci-fi novel.

Faces of the people from an exotic planet.

But we share our planet with these creatures.

There are over 2,500 species of praying mantises;

ten percent of them are in Brazil,

the most biodiverse country in the world.

And we expect at least 300 more species to be discovered there.

LL: Within their micro-world,

they are fierce predators,

hunting down any creature they can grasp, from mosquitoes to cicadas.

And even, though rarely, vertebrates,

such as frogs and birds.

They can eat anything, from soft and yummy flies

to armor-plated beetles.

They can even eat and process poisonous caterpillars without harming themselves.

And last year,

we just published the first ever account of a praying mantis feeding on plant sap.

A vegetarian mantis?

Well, when walking this alien world, questions arise more often than answers.

Speaking of poison, they have none in their bodies.

So they rely on the physical strength of their spiky legs, called raptorials,

and their swift moves to catch their prey.

Their vision is highly accurate,

precisely detecting depth through a unique 3D vision system

in the animal kingdom, which reacts to movement.

Their eyes synch or adapt to the light,

changing color between day and night.

But we're still unsure how good their night vision is,

despite seeing them actively roam around in darkness.

LF: Most of them are masters of camouflage,

an ancient art meaningful on the native habitats.

This colorful male vanishes on the grassy fields where he lives.

Can you spot a praying mantis on these pictures?

Yes? No?

Well, actually, these photos are exclusively of praying mantises.

The first looks like a dry leaf,

the second like a stick,

and the third like lichen.

Their shapes range from fresh green leaves, mosses, branches,

to everything in between.

We are blown away by how evolution led these incredible predators to blend

into the natural environment.

And if they feel threatened, they can play dead.

Or display colors like a peacock

all within an extremely light body.

Large males like this,

eight centimeters long, can weigh just one gram.

Others are even smaller.

The more permanent changes they go through are just as awesome.

Like other insects, they grow through molts,

changing their skin.

And when adults, developing wings, depending on their species.

LL: Since the very beginning of "Projecto Mantis" six years ago,

we've taken care of every mantis we've collected for research.

They live in our homes with us.

Our family and friends think of them as pets.

This unusual, no-kill protocol, allows us to understand about their life cycles,

behavior, and, perhaps more importantly,

to connect them to people around us.

Back home, there are over 40 mantises waiting for us,

and some will live for over two years.

This year we just discovered a new species.

This tiny green mantis has a translucent body

and intrigues us

because it was found only through our non-lethal lights trap

which attract winged males.

We believe it lives high up in the canopy,

out of our sight.

And despite the advances of technology

allowing humanity to explore the deep sea,

outer space, the metaverse now,

we still lack efficient tools to research and survey

the highest parts of Amazonia,

which is exactly where scientists expect to find the greatest biodiversity

in the rainforests.

On our last expedition,

we tried night drone flights, without success.

The creative uses of technology are part of our contemporary science,

and we keep chasing ideas

that could lead us to explore the unreachable treetops

and understand more and more about mantises in the wild.

LF: The closer you look,

the more beautiful complexity you will find,

like this amazing row of praying mantis wings.

And there’s the Brazilian dragon mantis;

the flower bud mantis; the unicorn.

But of course, rainforest isn't just a fantasy wonderland.

"What if you are afraid of the dark?"

you might be wondering.

Well, the answer is the same among explorers.

Out there,

surrounded by all kinds of creatures,

the only thing we fear

is mankind.

And when we are back home,

we fear that the next time we visit the rainforest again,

it will be further destroyed.

LL: Rainforests are delicate and endangered ecosystems

critical to the stability of our planet.

Most of its life remains unknown.

And just during this single talk,

we've lost about 15 hectares of rainforest in the Amazon of Brazil

to deforestation.

That's bigger than 20 football fields.

Every 10 minutes,

countless praying mantises gone.

No matter how magical darkness is,

when it covers the Amazon tonight,

these areas will be empty.

A silent mourning that few will hear.

We are documenting species that may not exist in future generations.

We’re just beginning to learn about them,

and we are sharing our discoveries

so that we can increase their chances of survival.

Last October,

we led our National Geographic-funded expedition

"Amazon from dusk to dawn,"

with a team of amazing scientists and storytellers

eager to find new ways of exploring the night.

And here,

for the first time,

you're going to see what happens when we expose praying mantises

to pure ultraviolet light.

LF: They all shine it back to us,

in colors we could have never even dreamed of.

A brilliant blue is some species,

a soft and warming orange in others,

and then all at once, on this beautiful hooded mantis.

These colors are real,

technology allowed us to see them with our naked eyes.

A visible and magical fluorescence.

Even the dead leaf mantis was certainly sparkling like liquid fire.

And to our delight,

the whole jungle reverberated in unimaginable colors.

What are they trying to communicate?

Which other secrets are we missing?

And yet again,

rainforest at night shows us how little we understand about its beauty.

With hundreds of hours of nocturnal dives,

our expeditions are filled with wonders in the rainforest zootopia.

We are hoping these discoveries will kick off this new era

where science, arts, technology will bloom again

in favor of nature.

The age of exploration on planet Earth is far from over.

And in the nights of the rainforest, it is just beginning.

(Both) Thank you.

(Applause and cheers)