{"id":2208778,"date":"2026-10-27T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T05:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2208778"},"modified":"2026-10-24T09:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:08:36","slug":"it-might-look-like-a-beautiful-flower-but-its-actually-a-deadly-predator-meet-a-very-innocent-looking-cold-hearted-mass-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/it-might-look-like-a-beautiful-flower-but-its-actually-a-deadly-predator-meet-a-very-innocent-looking-cold-hearted-mass-killer\/","title":{"rendered":"It might look like a beautiful flower but it&#8217;s actually a deadly predator&#8230; Meet a very innocent-looking, cold-hearted mass killer"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"sprylab_purple_content\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"purple-inner-container purple-content-body-inner\">\n<p>One of the world&#8217;s most beautiful insects, the orchid mantis, is\u00a0just too beautiful to be taken seriously as\u00a0a\u00a0deadly\u00a0predator &#8211; but that&#8217;s what it is says Stuart Blackman.<\/p>\n<p>Camouflage is usually about hiding. And plenty of insects\u00a0deploy\u00a0colours and patterns that allow\u00a0them to blend in amongst flowers.<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0this gorgeous denizen of Southeast Asian\u00a0forests\u00a0doesn\u2019t want\u00a0to hide; it wants to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>The disguise attracts pollinating insects in search of nectar, which the mantis snatches from the air when they get close enough.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, experiments have shown that the mantis\u00a0attracts\u00a0more insects than\u00a0a real flower\u00a0does.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe id=\"255069614\" title=\"Orchid Mantis - Super PINK!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QdfGCscTMak?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.discoverwildlife.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-129157385_7=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-18=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-25=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-32=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-39=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-46=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"list-content\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"author-info\">\n<p class=\"author-name\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"premium-protection-zone\"><\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/insects-invertebrates\/deadly-orchid-mantis-predator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article <\/a>by Stuart Blackman was first published by Discover Wildlife on 20 October 2026.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>    <div id=\"premium-article-bottom-card\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff !important; border: none !important; border-radius: 8px !important; margin: 30px auto !important; max-width: 850px !important; width: 100% !important; box-shadow: 0 4px 16px rgba(0,0,0,0.06) !important; box-sizing: border-box !important; overflow: hidden !important; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif !important;\">\n\n        <!-- FLEX CONTAINER: SIDE-BY-SIDE ON DESKTOP\/TABLET, STACKS ON MOBILE -->\n        <div style=\"display: flex !important; 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line-height: 24px !important; padding: 14px 32px !important; margin: 0 0 10px 0 !important; text-align: center !important; max-width: 100% !important; box-sizing: border-box !important; box-shadow: 0 2px 6px rgba(255,111,0,0.2);\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/premium-wildlife-membership?default_interval=m&#038;amount=5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Support Conservation Ad-Free<\/a>\n\n                    <!-- CONVERSION TRUST LINE OPTIMIZED WITH MEDIUM GRAY (#555555) -->\n                    <div class=\"wp-responsive-cta-secure\" style=\"font-size: 12.5px !important; color: #555555 !important; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: 16px !important; text-align: left !important; margin: 0 !important; padding: 2px 0 0 0 !important; display: block !important; visibility: visible !important;\">\n                        \ud83d\udd12 Secure checkout \u2022 Cancel easily anytime \u2022 100% secure\n                    <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the world&#8217;s most beautiful insects, the orchid mantis, is\u00a0just too beautiful to be taken seriously as\u00a0a\u00a0deadly\u00a0predator &#8211; but that&#8217;s what it is says Stuart Blackman. Camouflage is usually about hiding. And plenty of insects\u00a0deploy\u00a0colours and patterns that allow\u00a0them to blend in amongst flowers. But\u00a0this gorgeous denizen of Southeast Asian\u00a0forests\u00a0doesn\u2019t want\u00a0to hide; it wants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2208779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d2rj6cu2ik1biv.cloudfront.net\/193c804a-a673-47bd-b09b-11baf4822a17\/9ac494a4-627d-4fea-a827-dcf588dd6f96\/7c02346e-6a9a-44ac-a1ac-e47a2ecc14a2\/thumbnails\/bd4c83c8-7726-44fa-9db6-3b95294ebc50.jpg?appId=f347d34d-c1a6-4a00-b570-b78c2dcb3211&platform=WEB&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[8192,4009,4066,7892],"class_list":["post-2208778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-camouflage","tag-forests","tag-invertebrates","tag-predator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2208778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2208778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2208778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2208778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2208778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}