Have you ever scrolled through social media and stumbled upon one of those captivating posts that challenge you to spot the camouflaged animal? Perhaps you’ve spent a few moments searching for a well-hidden snow leopard or a cleverly concealed owl or snake, wondering at nature’s knack for disguise. These visual puzzles spark a sense of curiosity, showcasing the extraordinary lengths animals go to in order to blend into their surroundings. In the insect world, mimicry and camouflage reach even more astonishing levels. Some insects have evolved not just to blend in with their surroundings but completely mimic other insects, adopting their shapes, colours, and even behaviours in a remarkable manner. Have you come across a stick-like insect in a forest or on a tree twig? Or an insect that resembles a leaf so completely that it took you a couple of minutes to notice it? There are numerous survival strategies insects exhibit as they camouflage with their surroundings or visual backgrounds to avoid being detected by predators or prey. Background matching (or crypsis), disruptive colouration, and masquerade (resembling another creature or object) are three types of camouflage strategies usually seen in insects.
Among insects and many other animals, survival is a crucial matter of blending in rather than standing out. Mimicry is one of the most significant and interesting insect survival strategies. Mimicry among insects usually happens when one species evolves to resemble another, probably better-adapted species. The primary purpose of mimicry has been protection from predators and better chances at prey catching their prey. Some of the major types of insect mimicry are Batesian, Müllerian, and aggressive mimicry.
All the different survival strategies they display are a testament to the incredible adaptability and ingenuity of insects. Admiring and acknowledging them is essential to spreading familiarity and awareness about fascinating insect species.
Batesian mimicry involves a harmless species evolving to imitate the warning signals of a harmful or unpalatable species. This strategy turns a popular idiom on its head, i.e., “a sheep in wolf’s clothing”. A predator who has had a bad experience with an unpalatable species will naturally avoid anything that looks similar for a long time. The predator is unlikely to crosscheck if its first experience was a false negative. This mimicry is only successful in systems where the harmful species is more abundant than the mimic, so the probability of a young predator picking on the mimic is low. This image displays classic Batesian mimicry, where a harmless katydid imitates a tiger beetle to avoid predation. A classic example of Batesian mimicry is the viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus), which mimics the appearance of the toxic monarch butterfly (Danus plexippus). The viceroy butterfly benefits from this mimicry because predators that have learned to avoid the toxic monarch butterfly will also avoid the similarly patterned viceroy butterfly, even though it is nontoxic. Photo: Jithesh Pai
Those of us hailing from South India are likely to have seen a cute seven-spotted cockroach in our forests. This is the (1) domino cockroach (Therea petiveriana) native to the scrub forests of southern India. Its unusual appearance includes a small, round, black body with white spots, resembling a domino. It’s suggested that this unusual appearance mimics (2) the six-spot ground beetle (Anthia sexguttata), an aggressive predator capable of producing defensive secretions. These adaptations intimidate predators from even approaching them. Photos: Girish Gowda (1), Hayath Mohammed (2).
Aggressive mimicry is more like a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. The strategy is often adopted by predators, parasitoids, and parasites wherein they mimic a harmless model so their prey won’t be intimidated by their presence. This harmless model can be an enticing feature such as a food resource, a potential mate, or a non-threatening third party. In this series of images, a crab spider (Genus: Thomisus) mimics a harmless Cucurbitaceae flower like a sneaky con artist. The crab spiders lounge on flowers, perfectly disguised as a harmless petal, waiting for a bee. The moment the bee tries to land, hoping to gather nectar or pollen, the spider springs out and feasts on it.
A fascinating and unusual example of aggressive mimicry is exhibited by the larvae of some blister beetles (Genus: Meloe) exhibit a fascinating and unusual example of aggressive mimicry with a highly complex and sophisticated modus operandi to reach their host. They aggregate and produce a pheromone that mimics the sex pheromone of a specific bee species. Male bees mistake the pheromones for those emitted by their females and are lured to the source. As the male bee engages with the assemblage of larvae, they climb over the bee’s abdomen. With the mating attempt being unsuccessful, the male bee goes around looking for females again. When mating finally happens, the larvae transfer from the male’s abdomen to the female. Later, when the female bee returns to her nest, the larvae disembark and parasitise the bee larvae within her nest.
Female fireflies of Photuris sp. exhibit another interesting example of aggressive mimicry. They mimic the light flashes of females of another genera of fireflies, the Photinus sp. Unaware of the threat ahead, unsuspecting Photinus sp. males get lured, hoping to find their mate, only to be preyed upon by the deceptive female Photuris sp. Photos: Ripan Biswas
There are many examples of insects that camouflage or blend with their surroundings. This kind of blending essentially involves specific colouration, patterns, and shapes that mimic or match their environment. For instance, 1) the bark mantis, with its mottled brown and grey colouration, blends seamlessly with the rough, uneven surface of tree bark, making it nearly impossible to spot as it waits for unsuspecting prey. 2) The lichen huntsman spider takes blending to the next level with patches of green and brown, mimicking lichen that grows on trees, rocks, and logs. 3) A Eurybrachid nymph employs a perfect masquerade, blending into its surroundings with shapes and patterns that mimic debris or plant matter. Its camouflage keeps it safe from predators as it moves across leaves, bark, or soil, appearing to be just a part of the habitat. Blending in or camouflaging allows insects better predation or predator avoidance in case of prey, and also helps them deceive rivals. We examine three types of camouflage strategies usually seen in insects. Photos: Hayath Mohammed (1) (3); Jithesh Pai (2)
Disruptive colouration is a strategy where the colour pattern of an insect’s body creates an optical illusion of fake edges and breaks up the outline of the insect, making it difficult for their predators to detect them. For example, the praying mantis (Hierodula tenuidentata) has patches of colours and patterns that mimic the shadows and highlights in their natural environment. When still, its body blends into the background, and the disruptive patterns make it difficult to discern its shape. This way it avoids predators like birds and reptiles and manages to ambush its own prey effectively. Photo: Ripan Biswas
About the contributor
Femi Ezhuthupallickal Benny
Femi is a PhD student at University College London (UCL), working on the ecology and behavior of Asian giant hornets. Passionate about insects, especially wasps, she loves fieldwork in underexplored places, studying how insects interact with their environment and discovering new species while at it!
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