Peril in the pink

awareness of the plight of this unique habitat. The Swiss photographer, Thomas Marent, has spent his adult life seeking out the spectacular beauty of the most striking plants and creatures. Tackling everything from poor light to predatory animals, biting insects, invisible diseases and intense humidity, Marent has ventured through rainforests from Costa Rica and Peru to Borneo, Sulawesi and Australia. He first became fascinated by birds and butterflies around his Alpine home, but was gripped by rainforests following a visit to northern Australia in 1989. After occasionally showing his slides to friends, he was persuaded to take photography seriously and it soon became his career. The picture below shows one of his startling photographs: a perfectly camouflaged orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) waits motionless in an orchid flower, ready to ambush and eat any insect unfortunate enough to be attracted to the bloom. Orchids and mantids are at their most diverse and numerous in tropical rainforests. A collection of photographs is being published in a book that includes biological information about the subjects and Marent's anecdotes from his travels. Alex Proud, director of the gallery, says: " This show represents not just the achievement of a single man, but signifies a much needed reminder of a rapidly depleting natural resource. " One of the key problems facing rainforests is just how little most people know about them and their contents. There is much talk of biodiversity amongst conservationists around the globe but the astonishing biodiversity within rainforests is still much uncharted and under increasing threat. Logging and clearance in many regions is not only removing the trees but the vast range of species associated with them. Drought is also an increasing problem, as seen in the Amazon basin last year, and may be linked to global warming. A new exhibition of photographs that has opened in London allows members of the public to view one photographer's passion for the small creatures that inhabit the increasingly threatened rainforest in the hope of raising Flower power: A cryptic mantis lies in wait for any insect approaching the orchid flower in which it sits.