Data from: Pollinator deception in the orchid mantis

Mimicry has evolved in contexts such as camouflage, predator deterrence, luring of prey and pollinator attraction. Mimicry of flowers has until now only been demonstrated in angiosperms, yet it has been hypothesized that the Malaysian orchid mantis Hymenopus coronatus mimics a flower to attract pollinators as prey. Despite the popularity of this charismatic insect, this long discussed hypothesis has never been experimentally investigated. We found that, as predicted for mimicry, the color of H. coronatus is indistinguishable from the color of sympatric flowers for hymenopteran pollinators. Field experiments show that isolated mantises attract wild pollinators at a rate even higher than flowers and capture these pollinators as prey items. After over a century of conjecture, we provide the first experimental evidence of pollinator deception in the orchid mantis and the first description of a unique predatory strategy that has not been documented in any other animal species.拟态（Mimicry）的演化场景涵盖伪装、天敌威慑、诱捕猎物以及吸引传粉者等。迄今为止，花拟态仅在被子植物（angiosperms）中得到证实，但此前有假说提出，马来西亚兰花螳螂（Hymenopus coronatus）会通过拟态花朵来吸引传粉者并将其作为猎物。尽管这种极具魅力的昆虫广为人知，但这一长期被探讨的假说从未得到实验验证。我们的研究发现，正如拟态理论所预测的那样，对于膜翅目传粉者而言，兰花螳螂的体色与同域分布的花朵颜色难以区分。野外实验表明，单独放置的螳螂吸引野生传粉者的速率甚至高于花朵，并会将这些传粉者作为猎物捕获。历经一个多世纪的推测之后，我们首次为兰花螳螂的传粉者欺骗行为提供了实验证据，并首次描述了一种此前未在任何其他动物物种中被记录的独特捕食策略。