Malaysian orchid mantis. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the Malaysian orchid mantis, Hymenopus coronatus. This Mantis inhabits rainforests of southeast Asia and the Indo-Australian Archipelago. They have a colour and body plan designed to blend them in with the flowers they typically live on. Although a carnivore and an impressive predator, this mantis is completely harmless to humans and a beneficial species in that it eats many harmful insects, including the gypsy moth caterpillar, many aphids, flies, mites, grasshoppers and, when an individual comes upon another mantis, will show cannibalistic behaviour. Mantises are solitary insects, coming together to mate only once a year. Females are known to eat the males after mating. Females lay about 100 eggs in a white hardened foam ootheca (egg case) which they cement to a tree branch or leaf. Magnification: x15 at 10cm