How Can I Survive?
Examples of mimicry, camouflage,
and how the fittest survive…
What do you see???
What do you see???
Now find the lizard here…
What do you
see???
What do you see???
Think you know what this is???
•Bet you think it’s a
snake…
•NO
•It’s a Hawk Moth
Caterpillar!!!
Find the
Geckos…
What do you
see???
Which picture contains a
Praying Mantis?
Both of
them!!!
What is hiding in the leaves?
Nothing! The leaves ARE the bugs!!!
What is this???
A scorpionfish rests immobile on a coral reef in the Philippines, 60 feet below the surface,
camouflaged against the colorful tapestry of the reef. Its crypsis serves to keep it hidden from smaller
fish which may become a meal if they wander close
A gravid female katydid
blends with the tropical
vegetation in the lowland
Amazon rain forest of
Peru. Her wings mimic
the mottling of the
surrounding leaves, and
she holds even her long
antennae still.
A Lonomia moth resembles a dead leaf on the forest floor of the
Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica, her head at the left and a
simulated leaf vein running from wingtip to wingtip.
A mossy leaftailed gecko is almost invisible while resting on a lichen-covered sapling
in the eastern forests of Madagascar. As it awakens it raises its head, revealing the
fringe along the sides of its body which blurs the line between itself and the substrate.
Why does a
leopard have
spots???
Left: Can you spot the nesting rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) in this
photo? Right: Close-up view of the ptarmigan in left photo. Photos taken by
Dr. R.J. Vogl in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. During the winter months,
this resident bird of the alpine tundra has white plumage.
These two katydids sitting on a tomato plant are well camouflaged.
Note the veins in the wings that resemble leaves. Katydids are
grasshopper relatives in the insect order Orthoptera.
What is hiding on the tree?
Cryptic Coloration & Mimicry
Many amphibian species are colored in such a
way so as to blend, undetected, into their
immediate environment. This is called cryptic
coloring, and is found in varying degrees
among many amphibian species. The photo to
the left shows four Hyla versicolor clinging to a
tree trunk. Their varying greenish gray
coloration allows them to blend nicly into the
trunks, branches, and mosses of their habitat.
Even when the image is enlarged, the frogs
appear remarkably camouflaged.
Peppermoth Story
1.
2.
3.
4.
In the early 1700s, the Industrial Revolution
began in London. This revolution resulted in
the rise of many industries, such as textile
manufacturing, iron production, beer brewing
and the forging of great steam engines.
Industrialization soon became the life force of
major urban areas in Britain.
Coal was the major source of energy for most
industries of the time.
When coal is burned, great quantities of soot
are released into the air. The soot coats
buildings, roadways, trees, and everything else
in a city in a thin black film.
Peppered moths tend to rest on the trunks of
trees.
Peppermoth
Since the early 1800s, scientists and
naturalists have observed that the
coloration of the peppered moth
population living in the industrialized
regions of Great Britain had gradually
turned from light gray to dark gray .
 These same moths in rural areas,
however, remained a light gray.
