The Conversation

Secrets of the orchid mantis revealed – it doesn't mimic an orchid after all

Author: The Conversation

Orchid mantis, Hymenopus coronatus.Igor Siwanowicz

In his 1879 account of wanderings in the Orient, the travel writer James Hingston describes how, in West Java, he was treated to a bizarre experience:

I am taken by my kind host around his garden, and shown, among other things, a flower, a red orchid, that catches and feeds upon live flies. It...

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