When we think of species of sublime beauty, insects don’t usually come immediately to mind, but what if I told you that in fact, the most beautiful beings are insects? There are extremely fluffy moths that give a kind of calm to the eye, and there are also peculiar beetles with patterns that seem to have been painted by Picasso himself, but within the classification of beautiful insects, the one that perhaps stands out the most is the orchid mantis. It combines the peculiarities of two magical worlds, fauna, and flora.
The Orchid Mantis
The code of nature is very clear, it is designed to survive, although how they do it is really surprising. The evolution of each being is unique, and it is ineffable to think that it has been possible for it to branch out into millions of beautiful forms. Just think of the myriad of amazing mammals we cohabit the planet with, birds and their extraordinary behavior, and a microscopic world of insects beyond our sight.
One of the millions of evolutionary offshoots resulted in the species known as the orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus), which possesses one of nature’s most beautiful and lethal mimicry. Between flora and fauna characteristics, the orchid mantis is deceptive at first glance, but if you pay closer attention, suddenly the shapes begin to make sense.
What appears to be a flower with colorful pink hues, combined with sporadic orange patterns and green roots, is actually an insect with movements that inspired oriental martial arts. Its middle and hind legs are pink and heart-shaped, resembling the delicate petals of orchids.
Sublime but Lethal Appearance
For centuries the orchid mantis has amazed naturalists, although to date it remains so strange that little is known about its behavior. Travel writer James Hingston was one of the first to describe the orchid mantis in 1897.
It was first described in 1897 by James Hingston in his “Wanderings in the Orient”, who at first thought it was an extremely rare carnivorous orchid:
“My kind host takes me through his garden and shows me, among other things, a flower, an orchid, which catches and feeds on live flies. It seized a butterfly while I was present and enclosed it in its beautiful but deadly leaves, as a spider would have wrapped it in a web.”
But it later transpired that what Hingston had seen was not a carnivorous plant, but a mantis with an intricate mimetic system, an evolutionary process that provides it with the necessary conditions for subsistence, or so entomologists believed.
At first, it was thought that the orchid mantis was a classic example of cryptic mimicry in which the animal develops similarities with its environment to survive in the hunt for predators. But as research progressed, they realized that in fact, it does not mimic any flower close to its environment, so how to hide? And this is where nature always gives us an unexpected plot twist, the orchid mantis does not use its beauty to mimic but to attract its victims.
It is not cryptic but aggressive mimicry, say, entomologists, with which orchid mantises attract their victims, insects, and pollinators that land on a fake flower that turns out to be a predator. This is how lethality and beauty come together in nature to maintain the perfect balance. Continue scrolling to delight in the beauty of the orchid mantis.
[Photos: Frupus]
Story written in Spanish by Alejandra Martínez in Ecoosfera