Ant Mimicry is called ‘myrmecomorphy’ which comes from two words myrmex (meaning ant) and morphos (meaning form). Birds and other large insects tend to avoid ants as prey as they tend to be aggressive or unpleasant to taste. Insects mimic ants as a protective mechanism, a form of Batesian mimicry. Many types of insects mimic ants, from phasmids to katydid, spiders, flies, beetles and praying mantis.

Females have small black and orange markings at the end of the wings and males have dark coloring along the entire wing. The mature adults are green in color and look nothing like ants. As they get older, they gradually lose their bright red coloring and begin to sport green and brown markings. The nymphs are incredibly fun to raise as they look exactly like ants, all the way down to the mandibles. This mantis lives to mimic ants, fire ants to be specific. Not just that, the ant-like appearance can help an insect go unnoticed amongst other ants and some insects take advantage of that to eat the ants which give them protection! Here's an Ant Mantis - a species of Praying Mantis which looks like an ant and acts like one except that it could catch and eat up a passing ant. So, looking like an ant can often save an insect from predation. Ants are the terrors of the insect world and most avoid them at all cost.