BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL MASQUERADES

ANIMAL MASQUERADERS

While we enjoy masquerades as entertainment and intrigue, animal masquerades are all about survival. Whether it’s to deceive another to avoid being eaten or to lure a meal, many animals have evolved to look like something other than what they are.

Sometimes it’s voluntary or conscious, sometimes it’s automatic, but in all cases, it’s fascinating.

Animal masquerades can take on the form of mimicry or camouflage. Prey pretend to be predators, and vice versa.

Invisibility (crypsis) is a form of masquerade, where an animal can blend in so well with its surroundings that its enemies can’t see it. Mistaken identity (mimesis) is another form.  

Some animals masquerade as a more dangerous species (Batesian mimicry). Some act like animals that don’t taste good (Müllerian mimicry).

Some animals pretend that their own vital parts are other less important parts (automimicry) to increase their chances for survival. Some appear to be bigger or more fierce than they really are.

Some feign death. Others display or release visual, olfactory or auditory distractions.

Every day is trick or treat. Every day is Halloween for animal masqueraders. Check them out below.

 

The mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) masquerade as tough guys after they moult and their new exoskeletons are still soft. They spread their front limbs to ward off predators, as if they were strong enough to crush them. Many predators fall for the ruse and leave them alone.

Several species of “innocent” butterflies mimic toxic ones such as the deadly Heliconius. Examples of these Batesian mimics include the Great Mormon (Papilio memnon) butterfly, native to Indonesia.

Harmless milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) masquerade as venomous coral snakes (Micrurus surinamensis). They are both marked with alternating yellow, red, and black bands.

The nasty-tasting viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) masquerades as the nasty-tasting monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) using Müllerian mimicry as they share common predators.

If predators can’t see you, there’s a good chance they can’t eat you. Chameleons are the most famous masqueraders that use active camouflage in hopes that their predators won’t notice them.

Chromatophores, pigment-containing and light-reflecting organelles in cells in their skin, enable these beautiful creatures to blend into their backgrounds even as their backgrounds change.

The Eyed Hawkmoth (Smerinthus ocellatus), the One-eyed Sphinx Moth (Smerinthus cerisyi) and the Polyphemus Moth all display large eyespots on their wings in deimatic masquerades. Predators mistake them for owls!

Several species of Decorator Crabs don “costumes” in their masquerades, using materials from their environment to hide from, or fend off, predators. They create their own camouflage in a process known as aposematism.

The Great Spider Crab (Hyas araneus) wears seaweed, small shells, and gravel as a disguise, depending on where it is hanging out.

The Pelia tumida crab elects to wear sponges. Macropodia rostrata and Libinia dubia crabs wear poisonous alga. Stenocionops furcata wears stinging sea anemones.

LEAFY SEA DRAGON

The Leafy Sea Dragon (Phycodurus eques) masquerade as plants. They simply look like seaweed floating in the water in their mimesis mimicry.

 

The Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) masquerades as a beautiful orchid. This pink and white creature’s body has petal-shaped lobes on their walking legs. James O'Hanlon, of Macquarie University in Sydney, was the first to actually demonstrate that orchid mantises dine on bees, butterflies, and other pollinators after successful fooling and luring them.

Read more about Beautiful Masquerades in  The Most Beautiful Costume Game,  Costume Envy: Princess Lockerooo, These Sweet Halloween Treats Last a Lifetime and The Art of Becoming A Fantasy.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

 

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Kym Farnik. “Monarch Butterfly.”
2. Image: by Sylke Rohrlach. “Peacock Mantis Shrimp-Odontodactylus scyllarus.”
3. Image: by Axel Meyer. “Repeating Patterns of Mimicry.” Courtesy of PLoS Biology.
4. Image: by Bernard Spragg. NZ. “Mexican Milk Snake.”
5. Image: by Bernard DUPONT. “Aquatic Coral Snake (Micrurus surinamensis).”
6. Image: by Putneypics. Viceroy butterflies.
7. Image: by Vicki DeLoach. “An October Monarch.”
8. Image: by Pauline Rosenberg. “Chameleon.”
9. Image: by Didier Descouens. “Dorsal side.” Smerinthus ocellatus (Linnaeus).
10. Image: by Fyn Kynd. “Smerinthus cerisyi (One-eyed Sphinx).”
11. Image: by OakleyOriginals. “Polyphemus Moth.”
12. Image: by Keith Wilson. Decorator crab.
13. Image: by Bart Braun. "Macropodia rostrata"
14. Image: by Eric Kilby. “Leafy Sea Dragon Side View.”
15. Image: by Frupus. “Orchid Mantis (Hymenopus coronatus).”
16. Image: by El Guanche. “Walking Orchid Mantis.”
17. Image: by Daedalus_23.  Mantis Shrimp.
18. Image: by BN App - Download now!
19. Image: by Klaus Stiefel. “Decorator Crab.”