Orchids with a Bite
This orchid mantis is perfectly adapted to hide and hunt among the flowers from which it gets its name. Unlike many other insects, these mantises can change their color from their default of white to pink, purple, greenish-yellow, or brown, depending on the coloration of their background.
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This orchid mantis is perfectly adapted to hide and hunt among the flowers from which it gets its name. Unlike many other insects, these mantises can change their color from their default of white to pink, purple, greenish-yellow, or brown, depending on the coloration of their background.
What am I looking at?
This is an orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) on the petal of an orchid flower. You can see its pinkish-white body (1); compound eyes (2); and strong raptorial (grasping), clawed front legs (3), as well as the green coloration, mimicking a flower, of the plate just behind its head (4). Click on the right arrow to see more views of adult orchid mantises and a few of their first nymph stage (in red and black).
Biology in the background
These mantises live in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, where they feed on other insects. They use active camouflage (the ability to change color to match their background) to hide from larger predators and to ambush their prey. Their change of color isn’t instantaneous; it usually takes days to weeks, and the insect must be still growing for the transformation to take place.
This adaptation is an example of what’s called aggressive mimicry. Rather than blending in with their surroundings, an orchid mantis’s goal is to attract prey (pollinating insects) by looking like those insects’ food source – an orchid flower. In fact, studies have shown that these mantises attract more pollinating insects than actual flowers do. Like many other mantis species, Hymenopus mantises also sway from side to side as if they’re being blown by a breeze, which aids their ability to camouflage themselves. The name of the genus to which this mantis belongs – Hymenopus – is derived from the Greek words hymen, meaning “membrane,” and pous, meaning “leg,” referring to its flanged appendages.
The females of the species can be up to 7 centimeters long, or roughly twice the size of a human thumbnail, while the males are much smaller – only about 2 centimeters long. The females are bigger because they molt two additional times. This factor, together with the fact that the males have a shorter lifespan, evolved as a means of preventing inbreeding – the degeneration of the genetic pool as a result of siblings mating.
Technique
These images were created using macrophotography.
Igor Siwanowicz, HHMI's Janelia Research Campus