“…and today we’re talking about a bug that engages in more aggressive mimicry than a middle schooler repeating everything you’re saying. But more on that later.”
The year was 1879. James Hingsley was an Australian journalist who returned from his voyage to Indonesia with a strange tale on his lips. He claimed that the northern islands were populated with an evil flower that captured insects and devoured them whole. Is this a lie? A trick? An evil curse? Or a little shop of horrors plant? By no means! It’s just the work of one devout little insect known as the orchid mantis. But sometimes blending in means standing out here in Life, Death, and Taxonomy.