A unicorn mantis of the Qinling mountains
July in the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi, near Foping, is green and buzzing with life. Perched on a leaf was a mantis that looked like it had wandered out of a fantasy novel: a tall, pointed crest rising from the top of its head like a small horn.
This is Phyllothelys shaanxiense, a member of the flower mantis family Hymenopodidae, and one of the insects sometimes called unicorn mantises for that prominent head crest. The species name shaanxiense means “from Shaanxi,” and the Qinling range, a biodiversity hotspot that separates northern and southern China, is exactly the kind of place where such specialists are found.
The function of the crest is not fully settled; it likely helps break up the mantis’s outline, making it look less like an insect and more like a broken leaf edge or a twig. Combined with its slender body, the effect is an animal that is genuinely hard to see even when you know it is there.
The Qinling forests have a reputation among entomologists for good reason. Every leaf seems to hide something that has spent millions of years perfecting the art of not being noticed.
