Superspecies History: Spore Mantis
Welcome once again to Monarch: After Dark, the digital gateway between you and the organisation dedicated to understanding and navigating this troubled new world we live in.
Our Skull Island coverage continues as we take a look at an insectoid creature capable of hiding perfectly in plain sight, the Spore Mantis.
(Pictured above: Photograph taken of a Spore Mantis. Strangely, it is dated 1972, a whole year before the first expedition to Skull Island)
Monarch Database File: Spore Mantis
Monarch Designation: Phasmid sylas
Height: 50 feet (maximum)
Species Designation: Insectoid florafauna
A creature with near-perfect camouflage capabilities, the Spore Mantis are believed by Monarch to be precursors to the Phasmatodea order of insects, a family that includes modern stick insects. The Spore Mantis has a body comprised of a powerful muscle system, tendons and tissues more commonly found within trees than animals, allowing them to scuttle along the ground with alarming speed.
Some at Monarch have likened the Spore Mantis to the General Sherman tree, though vastly prefer the latter as the General Sherman is unlikely to sprout legs and start hunting them down.
The Spore Mantis has a trunk that plays host to a slug-like parasite armed with a bone-crushing bite, and a digestive system where protein-rich sap breaks down consumed prey, before excreting the remains in a crystalised amber that openly displays what the Spore Mantis had eaten. While Monarch's cryptobiology department appreciates this transparency, others are often repulsed by the sight.
(Pictured above: Sketches of the Spore Mantis by Stephanie Levallois)
A Spore Mantis was briefly spotted by the 1973 expedition team after reaching the approximate sight of Jack Chapman's death by Skullcrawler. Details of his encounter with the animal, if any encounter had taken place, are unknown.
The nature of their camouflage make the Spore Mantis rather difficult to track and observe for study. It is likely that many of these animals have been passed by Monarch research teams without being correctly identified.
By 2027, Spore Mantises residing in Hollow Earth were among the creatures hunted down and taxidermied by Raymond Martin.
And that's all she wrote for the Spore Mantis! Regular insects seem to terrify plenty as they are, so it is rather fortunate that the Spore Mantis are confined to Skull Island and the Hollow Earth. Although, did anyone else feel this trunk moving beneath us..?