If you are someone who holds a special curiosity about exotic insects from around the world then a video doing the rounds on social media might pique your interest. At first if you look at the video it may seem you are looking at some hyperreal manicure inspired by the exotic flower plants called orchids. But when the petals of the orchid start moving on the hands of the person you realise that what you are actually watching is a group of orchid mantis moving on a hand.
The video has now been viewed by over 857k Instagram users after Adrian Kozakiewicz also known as Insecthaus posted it on the social media platform on April 21. The species that were seen on Adrian’s hands in the video are known as the Hymenopus coronatus. As the caption of the video read, “Orchid mantis females. Hymenopus coronatus.” These female orchid mantis have an alluring pink and white mantis with lobes on its legs that look like flower petals. The Hymenopus coronatus are native to the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia. Their camouflage may suggest that they prefer living among the orchid plantations, but that is not the case. Its natural habitat is generally surrounded by white and pink flowers in bushes and small trees. This way the mantis can look for predators such as birds and at the same time can catch pollinating insects that are attracted to the flowers.
The orchid mantis comes in varying colours like completely white, completely pink and others that are somewhat of a mix. An orchid mantis can change its colour depending on the environmental conditions like humidity and light conditions. It is not just the appearance of the orchid mantis but its many other qualities that make it worthy of our attention.
With over 1.1 million followers, Adrian’s Instagram handle is dedicated to such a range of insects that we may never come across our daily lives. An earlier Instagram post from this month shows Adrian holding a female Creobroter gemmatus also known as the jeweled flower mantis from Thailand. The video has been viewed by over 2.5million Instagram users. Another video which has been viewed over one million times on Instagram shows Adrian’s face adorned with the Chinese moon moth.
Are you intrigued by these exotic insects?
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