The Insect that Predates On Other Insects

Not a lot of people are privileged to go into the wild or into oceans to see life in there but if you are familiar with animal documentary, then you must have see a snapping turtle wriggling its worm-tongue so as to attract fishes, or the angler fish which uses luminous bait to get fishes. These animals use the promise of food to get other animals to come to them and they eat them up for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or some may even have them for brunch.

One of those animals are the praying mantis which disguises so well that in 1879 when James Hingsley went back to Australia from indonesia, he mentioned that he saw orchids that chewed and swallowed butterflies in their petals, devoring them alive. You are guessing it; Yes, it wasn't a petal rather it was a predator that blended in to its environment so as to be able to feed. Owls that blend in to their natural habitats, and lizards that have the same color and texture like the back of a tree, and so on. While blending it can be good for hunters, it can aso be good for the hunted.

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Back to what James Hingsley explained, what he saw wasn't an orchid, rather it was an Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus Coronatus) which is a native predator insect native to Southeast Asia's rainforest and they exhibit aggressive mimicry where they disguise so as to standout and get their prey. The Orchid mantis as its name implies uses its orchid look to flirt as well as to attract orchid pollinators which are bees and flies to itself.

Because they have their entire body having the color of petals, they can disappear or not be seen easily in the midst of flowers and this is visible to both humans and insect alike but since we are not pollinators we do not always have issues with this. This insect is so good at disguise that insects looking for food from petals usually become a meal.

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Funny enough, Orchid mantises do not need a flower to attract insects, they can do it on their own. They attract insects better than the petals themselves and this is because insects like bees, flies, beetles, and butterflies see floral fatales completely differently because they do not see the detailed patterns rather they see the big pictures and when it comes to the orchid mantis, the insects see them as a brighter flower.

The Orchid mantis is so good at predating that a particular type attracts only male bees orchid. In other to get their prey, they also use cryptic mimicry to allow their prey believe they are flowers. With Cryptic mimicry, they rock themselves back and forth like flowers that are being swayed by wind. They also use this as a way of protecting themselves from predators like birds, monkeys, and lizards.

In the cycle of life, insects can be predators and preys but the orchid mantis plays the predator game well and although still becomes a prey to some animals, it still does its best to hide from its predators while being one itself.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/praying-mantis-facts-life-cycle.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/praying-mantis
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(15)01421-9
https://www.exploringnature.org/db/view/Adaptations-of-the-Orchid-Mantis
https://phys.org/news/2016-12-predation-pollinating-insects-evolution-orchid.html