16-08-04 Mantis shrimp, often brightly colored and fiercely aggressive sea creatures with outsized strength, use the ultraviolet reflectance of their color spots as well as chemical signals to assess the likelihood of victory in combat, according to research...

15-10-16 Once, the King of the State of Wu wanted to invade the State of Chu. The King of Wu warned his ministers: If anyone should dare to dissuade me from invading Chu again, I will put him to death. One young hanger-on of his wanted to dissuade him but di...

15-08-07 In the State of Chu, there was a man whose family was very poor. Even at night he often dreamt of striking it rich, but he never worked hard. One day, when he was leafing through the book Huainan Zi, he came across a line saying: When the mantis pre...

15-02-27 The miniweight boxing title of the animal world belongs to the mantis shrimp, a cigar-sized crustacean whose front claws can deliver an explosive 60-mile-per-hour blow akin to a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun. Now, a Duke University study of 80...

14-09-10 Towards the end of the Spring and Autumn period, King Fuchai of Wu, having defeated the state of Yue, hoped to expand his land by invading the State of Qi. But he was so busy celebrating the victory that he was not aware that Yue was preparing for r...

14-08-19 After a heavy lunch, a little monkey took a nap between the branches on the top of a tall tree. Suddenly, he was awakened by a kind of desperate cry for help. Opening up his eyes, the monkey found a stout mantis tightly holding a delicate branch wit...

14-05-21 Circling the light trap used to lure（引诱） insects out of the thick, wet night in Rwanda's mountainous Nyungwe Forest National Park, Riley Tedrow reached to the leaf litter on the ground and nabbed a male and female of what turned out to be a new...

14-02-28 There is a story about a cicada（蝉） in the Chinese classic, Chuang-Tzu. Once upon a time, a male cicada joyfully joined his friends in singing the most beautiful praises of happy summer. He sang and sang, completely intoxicating himself in the com...

14-02-28 A certain mantis grew extraordinarily stout（结实的） and robust. When he walked around in the backyard, brandishing（挥舞） his two powerful forelimbs. He could easily catch some smaller insects such as locusts, crickets, bugs, etc. Since he was st...

11-12-30 Once a carter（车夫） was driving his cart, when a mantis（螳螂） jumped out in front of the cart. Raising its forelegs, it tried to obstruct the passage of the cart. Of course, it was crushed by one of the wheels. This idiom is used to mean overrat...