Why Do These Deadly Insects Look Like Flowers?

In 1879, when James Hingsley returned to Australia from Indonesia, he told stories of an orchid that wrapped butterflies in its petals and ate them alive. But this magnificent creature was not a plant, it was a predator... ready to kill. Invisibility is a great way to survive, but it can benefit both the hunter and the prey. That butterfly-eating monster from Indonesia? This is not an orchid at all. This is the orchid mantis, an insect native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia. These beautiful

insects

perform a behavior called aggressive mimicry, which consists of using camouflage not to hide, but to stand out.

It goes without saying, but you've probably come across one like this before. No, I'm not talking about Waldo. Like the sinuous, worm-like tongue of a turtle or a luminous anglerfish lure, some animals use this camouflage to hide their murderous intentions. Some parasites even imitate their hosts' prey to be swallowed. Other imitators rely on the sense of smell to deceive. A spider attracts its prey by sending a chemical signal that females often use to attract males. Like the plants that give them their name, these

insects

used their shape to court. Orchids display beautiful patterns to attract their favorite pollinators: bees and flies.

With their pink and yellow legs, orchid mantises can disappear among flower forests. They disguise themselves so well that many times an insect

look

ing for dinner becomes their dinner. At least, that's what scientists thought... until someone noticed something strange: Orchid praying mantises don't actually need

flowers

around them for their disguise to work. They attract prey better than true orchids. To understand why, we have to think and see like flying insects. This means

look

ing beyond our human senses. It would be difficult for you or me to pick an orchid mantis from a grove of

flowers

. Our visual system picks up the shapes, edges, and fine details of a mantis's camouflage.

Our brains see the petals and think "that's a flower." On the other hand, bees and flies (even beetles and butterflies) see flower-like things very differently. The eyes and minds of pollinators don't capture the minute details, but they clearly grasp the bigger picture. To these prey animals, the orchid mantis does not look like a flower, but instead appears larger and brighter than any flower. Here's the trick. Some flowering plants are happy to be pollinated by anything they find, but orchids are exclusive to pollinators. A type of orchid that only attracts the males of a specific species of bee.

If the orchid mantis' camouflage is very precise, it would limit the number of animals it could fool. On the other hand, by looking a little like other flowers, they can attract more prey. These lying animals also trick our brains, but the orchid mantis did not evolve to trick the human brain. In fact, the way we are fooled falls into an entirely different category of disguise: covert imitation. Like its relatives, the mantis orchid sways from left to right like a flower swaying in the breeze. We don't know for sure, but scientists believe that being shaped like a flower helps hide it from predators like birds, lizards, and monkeys in the same way.

Knowing how these predators and parasites developed lethal stealth strategies would have been nearly impossible until recently. And we are still learning. Some costumes are so good that it can be difficult to see their true purpose. Stay curious. Translated by: @autrjim translation team