Stick mantis

A praying mantis with an elongated, twiglike body that helps it blend into vegetation. Its camouflage can make it resemble a stem or branch.

Connect

Masquerade: A form of camouflage in which an organism resembles an inedible or irrelevant object. A stick mantis can resemble a twig rather than merely match the vegetation’s colors.
Mantodea: An order of predatory insects commonly known as praying mantises. A stick mantis is a specialized form within this insect order.
Predator avoidance: Behaviors and traits that reduce the likelihood of being detected, attacked, or eaten by predators. Resembling vegetation can reduce the risk that predators notice a stick mantis.
Empusa pennata: A Mediterranean mantis species with an elongated body and leaflike or twiglike projections. Its unusual outline provides a specific example of plantlike form within Mantodea.
Crypsis: Concealment that reduces an organism’s chance of being detected by another organism. Twiglike form is one route by which the mantis becomes difficult to detect.
Phasmids: An order of insects that includes stick insects and leaf insects, many of which resemble vegetation. Phasmids share twiglike camouflage, but they are not mantises.
Prey capture: The sequence by which a predator detects, approaches, and obtains prey. The mantis’s disguise may also help it approach prey without being detected.
Brunneria borealis: A slender North American mantis species with an elongated, sticklike body. This species exemplifies the narrow-bodied appearance described by the name stick mantis.
Camouflage: An adaptation that makes an organism less detectable or recognizable in its surroundings. The mantis’s elongated shape is part of a broader concealment strategy.
Raptorial foreleg: A grasping foreleg adapted for seizing and holding prey. The mantis’s elongated body conceals an insect whose forelegs remain adapted for predation.