WEBVTT - Why Does the Orchid Mantis Imitate Flowers?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogelbaumb here. One of our favorite things about science

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<v Speaker 1>is that it can really surprise us. Consider the case

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<v Speaker 1>of the elusive insect, the orchidmantis. Orchid mantises live in

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<v Speaker 1>the rainforests of Southeast Asia. The females are big, measuring

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<v Speaker 1>about two and a half inches long that's about six

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<v Speaker 1>and a half centimeters. Their male counterparts, meanwhile, only grow

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<v Speaker 1>to about an inch long maybe three centimeters. If you've

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<v Speaker 1>never seen one, they're worth looking up. They look strikingly

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<v Speaker 1>like orchid flowers. Their bodies and limbs are colored white

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<v Speaker 1>to a delicate pink, often with details of purple on

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<v Speaker 1>their heads, and patterns of brighter pink, yellow, green, or

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<v Speaker 1>black on their backs and lower limbs. They are two

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<v Speaker 1>pairs of hind legs used for walking, have wide, flat

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<v Speaker 1>surfaces that look like flower petals. Since they were first

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<v Speaker 1>described in scientific literature and more than one hundred years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>it was thought that these floral mantises evolved to imitate

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<v Speaker 1>orchid flowers and thus potential prey that are attracted to

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<v Speaker 1>or live among those flowers. By hiding among real blossoms.

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<v Speaker 1>It was thought they could sneak attack anything that happened

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<v Speaker 1>by moths, butterflies, beetles, or even frogs and scorpions. This

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<v Speaker 1>type of evolutionary behavior is called cryptic mimicry. It can

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<v Speaker 1>be used on the offense or defense, and it just

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<v Speaker 1>makes sense, right. It was commonly accepted as fact until

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<v Speaker 1>a few years ago. Okay, so, in the twenty teens,

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of different research groups were conducting systematic field

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<v Speaker 1>testing to see how adult orchid mantises operate. It turns

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<v Speaker 1>out those females weren't hiding at all. Insects were more

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<v Speaker 1>attracted to the female orchid manaces than to real flowers.

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<v Speaker 1>It was still a deception, but the other insects were

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<v Speaker 1>belining towards them, sometimes literally, you know. In the case

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<v Speaker 1>of bees. This is known not as cryptic mimicry, but

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<v Speaker 1>as aggressive mimicry. By evolving to be larger and more

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<v Speaker 1>flower like, female mantises increase their chances of attracting and

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<v Speaker 1>catching their preferred prey. They don't even look like one

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<v Speaker 1>particular species of flower. The research shows that their coloration

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<v Speaker 1>imitates several different species from an insect's perspective that coloration

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<v Speaker 1>from a distance, the screams tasty nectar found here. As

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<v Speaker 1>the insect approaches the orchidmantis, the petal shaped legs confirm

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<v Speaker 1>what the insect thinks to be true. It's a flower,

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<v Speaker 1>so it goes in, and the mantis knabs and eats

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<v Speaker 1>the critically misguided insect. These findings might not sound super

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<v Speaker 1>different from the previous hypothesis, but they're interesting for a

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<v Speaker 1>few reasons. First, this is one of the first times

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<v Speaker 1>the female adaptation in a species has been observed to

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<v Speaker 1>be for predatory purposes and not reproductive ones. A sexual

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<v Speaker 1>dimorphism is when a male and female of the same

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<v Speaker 1>species evolve to look and operate a little differently. Usually

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<v Speaker 1>the adaptations are both for reproductive purposes, but in the

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<v Speaker 1>case of female orchidmantises, they adapted because they were hungry,

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<v Speaker 1>not directly to improve their chances of having more or

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<v Speaker 1>healthier babies. Their male counterparts meanwhile, evolved to be smaller

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<v Speaker 1>and to use their patterning as camouflage to avoid being

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<v Speaker 1>eaten by predators. Of course, both of these behaviors indirectly

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<v Speaker 1>improve the mantis's chances of reproducing by surviving longer. The second,

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<v Speaker 1>the orchidmantis is the first animal known to mimic not

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<v Speaker 1>just a part of a blossom, but an entire blossom,

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<v Speaker 1>including color, petal shape, et cetera, to attract insects of

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<v Speaker 1>its own accord. And finally, these types of studies highlight

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<v Speaker 1>how systematic field research can lead to answers you weren't expecting,

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<v Speaker 1>or indeed weren't even attempting to find. One of the

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<v Speaker 1>studies that contributed to this knowledge wasn't even looking at

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<v Speaker 1>orchidmantises specifically, but at mantis taxonomic classification in general. They

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<v Speaker 1>were hoping to reclassify some different mantis species to better

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<v Speaker 1>align with their actual evolutionary history. But when they started

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<v Speaker 1>to notice this pattern in orchidmantis evolution, favoring larger, more

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<v Speaker 1>colorful females that could catch bigger prey, they honed in. Oh.

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<v Speaker 1>Once again, animals prove that we can't always predict why

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<v Speaker 1>they do what they do or look how they look.

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<v Speaker 1>Mother Nature continues to surprise us in beautiful and deadly ways,

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps especially if you're a bug. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article the orchidmantis looks like a flower, it

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<v Speaker 1>stings like a Bee on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by

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<v Speaker 1>Alison Troutner. A brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with hostuffworks dot Com and is produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Klang. But four more podcasts from my heart Radio.

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