It
may look pretty, but this “orchid” actually has a trick under its, well,
leaves—it’s actually a praying mantis trying to get a meal.
Until recently,
scientists weren’t sure if this flower mimic was accurate enough to deceive
bugs. Now, a new study says it is—and it’s the first scientific evidence of an
animal imitating a flower to attract prey.
A female orchid mantis makes like a flower.
Photograph courtesy Dr. James O’Hanlon, Macquarie University
The orchid mantis’
story goes back to 1879, when Australian journalist James Hingsley came back
from Indonesia with tales of a carnivorous orchid that enveloped butterflies in
its petals and consumed them alive. Hingsley hadn’t actually discovered an insect-eating
flower. He, like those butterflies, was fooled by the orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus). (Watch a praying mantis video.)
For their recent study,
scientists James O’Hanlon and Marie Herberstein of Macquarie University in Australia and Gregory Holwell of the University of Auckland in New Zealand went to Malaysia to find out if the orchid mantis’ blossom impression really
lured pollinators to their deaths. Herberstein received funding from the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and
Exploration.
The first challenge
for the team was finding orchid mantises in the dense forests of Malaysia. The
researchers relied on the knowledge of native Malaysians known as the Orang
Asli, who live a traditional lifestyle amidst the forest and knew where the
orchid mantises live.
“They likely have an
enormous wealth of knowledge about the natural history of the plants and
animals of Malaysian rain forests that we scientists have yet to fully
appreciate,” said O’Hanlon, whose research will be published in January
in American Naturalist.
Once they had obtained
a few orchid mantises, the researchers combed the forest for the flower it
mimics. But ”we really couldn’t find any flower that looks just like the orchid
mantis,” he said. (Also see “Glowing Cockroach Mimics Toxic Beetle.”)
Instead, orchid
mantises may resemble an average or generalized flower, incorporating several
characteristics typical of Malaysian blooms.
Flower
Power
The scientists
performed two experiments: First, they compared the color of mantises and
various native flowers using an instrument called a spectrophotometer, which
can measure wavelengths of light that an insect sees, which is outside of the
range detectable by human vision.
An orchid mantis is camouflaged on a flower,
in Borneo, Malaysia. Photograph by Thomas Marent, Minden Pictures/Corbis
The team found that
from the perspective of a pollinating insect, the color of orchid mantises is
indistinguishable from a large number of Malaysian flower species.
Next, the research
team observed live orchid mantises in the field, counting the number of insects
that were attracted to the mantis “flower.” They compared this to the number of
insects that inspected an actual flower in the same amount of time.
Their hypothesis was
right: They were surprised to find the mantises actually attracted more insects
than the real flowers.
There are other
animals that use their camouflage to hide among flowers and then ambush prey,
but the predatory strategy of the orchid mantis is different. (Watch a video of a female praying mantis biting off the
male’s head.)
“The orchid mantises
we observed were not hiding amongst flowers, but were sitting on their own
against a backdrop of green vegetation,” O’Hanlon said.
“Thus, it was the body
of the mantis itself that was attracting the pollinators, and not any flowers
in its vicinity.”
Still-Mysterious Mantis
O’Hanlon has more
questions about the orchid mantis.
“This was the
first-ever study of the orchid mantis, so we’re really only seeing the tip of
the iceberg here,” he said.
For instance, O’Hanlon
plans to look at the interaction between pollinators and mantises, as well as
explore the possibility that the orchid mantis’ mimicry conceals it from
predators.
Thanks to the team,
this elusive floral faker is beginning to give up its secrets.
No comments:
Post a Comment