Name:
Camouflage and Mimicry
Whether to hide from predator or prey, many different populations of organisms have found it beneficial to evolve
ways to hide. There are two basic ways to hide. Camouflage refers to when a species tries to resemble an
inanimate object. Mimicry refers to a similarity between two different species.
Camouflage
What does a tiger lurking in the grass have in common with a walking stick?
They both use camouflage! Camouflage is used by organism to look inanimate
(non-living) or inedible. Some species will appear to have noticeable coloration
when they are not viewed in the proper surrounding. The giant blue Morpho
butterfly, for example has a 7 inch wingspan and brightly colored wings when
viewed from above. However the dark black underside of the wings is all that
can be seen as the insect flies through the rainforest, unseen by its predators
A tiger’s camouflage helps it
wait in the grass
below. Rainforest mammals, like jaguars, leopards and okapi have seemingly
odd colorations that actually help to break up their outline in the dim
rainforest, making them harder to spot. What about a tiger’s stripes? The black
and orange coloration seen on tigers actually helps it blend into the swaying dry grass that is normally found in its
hunting grounds. Many Indian woodsmen are surprised by tigers that just seem to come out of nowhere because
they are so well camouflaged.
Mimicry
There are three forms of mimicry used by predators and prey: Mullerian, Batesian and self-mimicry. Mimics are
well known for using aposematic coloration, bright vivid colors to warn off predators.
Müllerian mimicry involves several different species of organisms that use similar aposematic coloration. All the
species that share the similar colorations are toxic or inedible. The loss of life of the mimics will be spread out over
all the species, instead of focused on one individual species. Eventually, predators will learn to associate the
colorations with the bad effects, and all organisms sharing the colorations benefit. Poison Dart frogs are a good
example of this. They have bright colorations, from red to lime green and a toxic skin that is dangerous to
predators. A well-studied example of this is the Monarch butterfly and the Viceroy
butterfly. As a caterpillar, the Monarch feeds on poisonous milkweed plants and stores
the poisons in its body. When a bird tries to prey upon the Monarch, it is confronted with
the foul tasting chemical which induces a retching like action in the bird and expels the
butterfly. The Viceroy butterfly looks almost identical to the Monarch but has no
chemical to make a bird sick in it. However birds that have eaten a monarch avoid the
viceroy butterfly as well, in fear of the consequences. For a long time the Viceroy and
Monarch mimicry was considered Batesian but it was recently discovered that the
Viceroy is just as inedible as the Monarch, thus making it Müllerian mimicry.
Batesian mimicry refers to two or more species that also share a similar appearance. The
difference in this kind of mimicry is that only one of the species will be equipped with
The Metal mark moth mimics a
stingers, toxins, poison or spines. The other species will be harmless. An example of
jumping spider.
Batesian mimicry is the Eastern Coral Snake and the Scarlet King Snake. The Eastern Coral
Snake is venomous and has a red, yellow, and black coloration, with the red and yellow
bands touching. The Scarlet King Snake has similar red, yellow, and black coloration but red and black bands
touching and is not a venomous snake. Self-mimicry is seen when an organism has a body part that mimics
another body part. This is most commonly seen in animals with eyespots. The spots fool predators into
not seeing the animal, but into thinking it’s an even bigger animal. Eyespots are common on many
moth and fish species. Another example of this is seen in the Frog mouth catfish. This fish has a tongue
shaped like a worm and it wriggles it to entice its prey into swimming into its mouth.
Name:
Camouflage and Mimicry
1.
What is camouflage?
2.
Why would a predator need to be camouflaged?
3.
What are the three types of mimicry?
4.
A poisonous coral snake has similar coloration to a harmless king snake. What type of camouflage or
mimicry is this?
5.
A great white shark has coloration called countershading. When other animals look up, the white shark
belly blends in with the sunlight shining through the ocean and if they look down on the shark the dark
coloration helps the shark blend into the darker depths of the ocean. What type of characteristic is this?
6.
Many butterfly species have wings whose bottom edge looks like antennae. What type of characteristic is
this?
7.
May insects that eat the poisonous milkweed plant have similar coloration; what type of mimicry is this?
8.
Zebras have stripes to break up their outlines so they cannot be singled out as a meal by a predator. Is this
an example of camouflage or mimicry?
9.
The mimic octopus often moves its legs around and changes its color patterns to mimic such things as a
deadly sea snake or poisonous lionfish. What kind of mimicry is this?
10. The cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl has large eye spots on the back of its head. Why do you think it
has them?