article_snippet.sent: The pastel-coloured orchid mantis has fascinated naturalists for more than a century.
article_snippet.sent: The pastel-coloured orchid mantis was popularly thought that the insect, whose legs are flattened and heart-shaped to resemble petals, simply mimics an orchid, allowing an orchid to 'hide' and catch prey.
article_snippet.sent: But earlier this year, scientists suggested that The pastel-coloured orchid mantis doesn't simply blend into flowers, but is attractive to insects in The pastel-coloured orchid mantis own right, sometimes preferring to remain more easily visible on leaves.
article_snippet.sent: The pastel-coloured orchid mantis was popularly thought that the insect, whose legs are flattened and heart-shaped to resemble petals, simply mimics an orchid, allowing it to 'hide' and
article_snippet.sent: catch prey an orchid .
article_snippet.sent: Dr James O'Hanlon of Macquarie University, Australia, set about systematically testing the ideas contained within the traditional view of The pastel-coloured orchid mantis modus operandi.
article_snippet.sent: First, The pastel-coloured orchid mantis team tested whether mantises actually camouflage among flowers, or, alternatively, attract insects on mantises actually camouflage among flowers own.
article_snippet.sent: For a flower-seeking insect, as predicted, The pastel-coloured orchid mantis colour pattern is indistinguishable from most common flowers.
article_snippet.sent: However, when paired alongside the most common flower in their habitat, insects approached mantises more often than flowers, showing that mantises are attractive to insects by their, rather than simply camouflaging among the flora. '
article_snippet.sent: When paired alongside the most common flower in their habitat, insects approached mantises more often than flowers, showing that mantises are attractive to insects by their, rather than simply camouflaging among the flora.
article_snippet.sent: Here, an orchid mantis eats a Tiger heliconian butterfly in Malaysia .
article_snippet.sent: an orchid mantis also found that mantises did not choose to hide among the flowers, but selected leaves to sit on, just as often.
article_snippet.sent: Sitting near flowers did bring benefits, though, because insects were attracted to the general vicinity.
article_snippet.sent: When insects were attracted to the general vicinity compared an orchid mantis's shape and colour with flowers from an insect's perspective, the predator did not resemble an orchid or indeed any particular species of flower, but rather a 'generalised' flower.
article_snippet.sent: The insect classifies an orchid mantis as a giant nectar-filled flower and approaches to investigate – to The insect doom.