They’re called “creepy-crawlies”, “pests” and “vermin” by everyone, but the truth is that insects are a tremendously fascinating group of animals. They’ve thrived for nearly 400 million years, and our ecosystems would be incomplete without them.

When you find insects in your garden or backyard, you are likely to find them annoying (and indeed, many of them are), but many people also see a beautiful side to insects. One such person is this woman from South Africa. Her name is Margaret Neville, and like a lot of us, she loves gardens.

If your garden has any number of flowers in it, then that’s almost a guarantee that a multitude of insects are going to pay it a visit.

Though few are as beautiful as the one Margaret encountered in her lavender bushes. She stumbled upon it during the month of September, and in her lavender bushes was the most beautiful insect she never expected to see. Her friend, Kerri Martinaglia, tells The Dodo :

“When I saw her, I thought she was an exquisite work of art.”

With the flower-petal like structures adorning its legs and thorax, and spectacular shades of lavender and grassy green decorating its body, the Spiny Flower Mantis, or Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi, is one fabulous bug.

With these colors on its body, we know why it was relaxing in Margaret’s lavender bushes.

In order to blend in with plants this beautiful, you’ll need to evolve similarly attractive camouflage. Found only in Southern and Eastern Africa, the mantis is a predator of other insects, keeping with the tradition of the praying mantis family.

It mimics the flowers that many prey insects like to pollinate, and it snatches and eats any pollinating insect that’s fool enough to mistake it for one. This mantis has the deadliness to match its looks.

The Spiny Flower Mantis though has predators of its own to worry about

Many spiders, frogs, and birds prey on mantises, so the Spiny Flower Mantis has another quirky aesthetic adaptation: A false eye adorning its back.

The green and black pattern is a convincing eye to many animals, and many similar examples of false eyes are found in the animal kingdom.

Margaret named the Flower Mantis in her garden “Miss Frilly Pants”, which is a wonderful name for such a wonderful specimen. These Flower Mantises are native to Sub-Saharan environments in Africa and do not enjoy it when the temperature gets hotter than 30 ° C.

Given how environmentally sensitive they are, Margaret was quite lucky to have found one out in the open like this

When news of Margaret’s mantis circulated on the internet, she stated that Miss Frilly Pants was in fact, still residing in her garden for some time afterward. Most likely, she was looking for a mate. In a few weeks’ time, Margaret may get to see the legacy of Miss Frilly Pants.

No doubt her endeavors should pay off, as she seems to have already found a suitor

“She has spent the entire month of September living on my lavender. She is still there now.”

Margaret says that finding Miss Frilly Pants in her garden was a blessing, and we totally agree. Seeing parts of the natural world that usually slip under our noses is always fun, especially when it’s something this beautiful.

If you want to bless someone’s timeline with a view of Miss Frilly Pants, or just love the minuscule side of the natural world, then it’d be great if you gave this article a share!

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Source: [Waterfall Retreat and Environmental Care, The Dodo, Keeping Insects