A tiny mantis dressed to look like an ant
On a green leaf in Lombok, over a blurred grey background, sat a mantis so small it was easy to mistake for an ant. Its body was black, decorated with white stripes on the head and thorax, and its long, threadlike antennae twitched as it watched me. It was a praying mantis doing one of the best tricks in the insect world: pretending to be something else.
This is Odontomantis planiceps, the Asian ant mantis, a member of the family Hymenopodidae in the order Mantodea. The species name planiceps means flat-headed, a nod to its shape. These tiny mantises mimic ants so convincingly that predators hunting for ants will pass them by, and the disguise does double duty: it lets the mantis move through ant trails without being attacked, and it fools the small insects it preys on.
Hymenopodidae is the family of flower mantises, which includes the famous orchid mantis, and many of its members are masters of disguise. Odontomantis takes a different route than its flower-mimicking cousins, trading petals for the hard-working look of an ant. The adults still keep the classic mantis toolkit: grasping forelegs folded patiently, ready to strike.
Ant mimicry is one of my favourite evolutionary tricks, and seeing it in the flesh never gets old. This little mantis was only a couple of centimetres long, but it had perfected a costume that fools the entire forest. It even moves like an ant, with quick, jerky steps instead of the slow sway of most mantises, which is the kind of detail that only shows itself if you watch patiently.
