Orchid Mantis

• Field experiments have shown that it attracts more pollinators than the flowers around it: it does not merely hide in a flower, it is a better lure than the real flower.
• Its colour changes with humidity and with the substrate: it can shift from white to deep pink within a few days.
• The males are so small that they weigh barely a fraction of the female, and their adult life is very short.
• It is the first experimentally demonstrated case of an animal mimicking a flower to attract prey: a 2013 study found that pollinators cannot distinguish its colour from that of the surrounding flowers and that the mantis attracts more insects than the flowers themselves.
• It sways from side to side, mimicking the movement of wind on a flower.
• It has one of the most extreme size differences of any mantis: the male can be less than half the length of the female.
• The newly hatched nymphs mimic not flowers but assassin bugs of the family Reduviidae, which bite and taste foul.
• It can change colour between pink and brown according to the background it is on.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Understorey and flowering shrubs of South-East Asian rainforest

Sexual maturity

Five to seven moults to adulthood; mating is possible 2 or 3 weeks after the final moult and the female usually dies shortly after laying her last ootheca

Gestation / incubation

The ootheca hatches after 4 to 6 weeks; full development takes 164 days on average in females and 104 in males above 25.9 °C

Litter / clutch size

30 to 80 nymphs per ootheca, with clutches described of more than 100 eggs; the female lays 1 to 4 oothecae over 2 or 3 months

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenopus_coronatus; Guias de cria de Hymenopus coronatus; Fichas de cria de Hymenopus coronatus; Grokipedia (datos de laboratorio); Biology Insights, ficha Orchid mantis; Grokipedia; Biology Insights

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.