Hymenopus coronatus

Orchid mantis Strategy: pass as a flower to ambush the visitors. This Southeast Asian mantis looks less like an insect than a bloom. Researchers working in Malaysia found it does not copy one particular orchid: to a bee's eyes its color is indistinguishable from the flowers growing around it. In field tests it drew pollinating insects about 30% more often than real flowers did, then caught them as prey. It is a hiding strategy and a hunting one at once, which makes it the showiest animal here. It lives at very low densities in the forest, so a wild one is a rare find; when you do see a "flower" with a bee hovering close, watch what happens next.