A female orchid mantis can grow up to 3 inches long, while a male only grows to about an inch long.

Each orchid mantis has four walking legs and two arms, which all look like flower petals. The toothed arms are used for grasping prey.

Orchid mantises are usually displayed with their beautiful pink coloring, but they can also take on a brown color depending on their background.

No official population surveys have been conducted for the orchid mantis. Their native range is believed to be throughout the rainforests of Southeast Asia and some of Indonesia.

Orchid mantises will wait out in the open wiggling its body to imitate flowers in the wind and let the insects come to them. They will then use their front legs to capture any insect that comes nearby. It’s an effective strategy that gives them an advantage over normal praying mantis species. 

The female orchid mantis is much larger than the male and contrary to popular belief, in the wild, the female usually never eats the male. He will spend several hours or days trying to approach her and once he is successful he will jump on her back and briefly copulate and then leave.

The female will lay several hundred eggs in a foam-like mass called an ootheca on twigs, leaves, or branches. She does this once and then dies shorty thereafter. Her entire life cycle lasts about a year.

When the eggs are ready to hatch, the tiny baby orchid mantises appear and are called nymphs. At this stage, they resemble an insect called an assassin bug. As they mature, they shed their exoskeleton and gain the beautiful pink or white colors they are so famous for.