Hide-and-seek: Nature’s Camouflage Artists

When you’re out on the trail, rest assured that many sets of eyes are watching your every move. Nature is full of animals that excel at being wallflowers. For these hidden animals, life is a game of hide-and-seek, with life or death consequences.

Crypsis is a term that refers to an organism’s ability to blend with its surroundings. Our most cryptic creatures have evolved camouflage to a fine art; some of the best are nearly impossible to spot, even at point blank range. There are two primary reasons to adopt a cryptic lifestyle: to eat, or avoid being eaten. Natural selection exerts powerful forces that can drive an animal to increasingly resemble its surroundings, and better avoid becoming a meal. Conversely, predators that are ambush hunters are more likely to capture prey if the meal-to-be can’t spot the hunter.

Caterpillars may be the masters of camouflage. A significant proportion of Ohio’s 3,000+ caterpillar species – the larvae of butterflies and moths – blend extraordinarily well with their surroundings. It works well. Although caterpillars are abundant and by far the most numerous plant-eating animals in Ohio, how many do you see? Some species, such as the checker-fringe prominent caterpillar, take camouflage to a fine art. It mimics the edge of a leaf, with the caterpillar’s back being jagged and uneven, like a leaf margin. The prominent caterpillar is even dappled with brown and green coloration, like an old leaf. Birds, which are voracious caterpillar predators, drive the evolution of crypsis in caterpillars.

Birds can also be masters of camouflage. The chuck-will’s-widow, a large relative of the whip-poor-will, relies on its cryptic plumage to avoid detection during the day. It actively forages for moths and other flying insects at night, but during the day chuck-will’s-widows settle onto the leaf litter of the forest floor. The coloration and patterning of their feathers matches the surrounding dried leaves to a remarkable degree.

A common summer sound is the birdlike trill of the gray treefrog. This small amphibian is highly arboreal, spending much time in the trees. Even when the frog is at eye level, good luck spotting it. Treefrogs are chameleon like in that they can change coloration to match their backdrop. If the frog is on a tree trunk, it’ll be shaded in tones of gray – a perfect match for bark. If perched on a leaf, the frog will morph to a beautiful shade of green that resembles the foliage.

Pollinating insects are addicted to nectar, but landing on a flower can be fraught with peril. There are ferocious predators that mimic flowers, and blend with blossoms to an eerie degree. Ambush bugs can look so much like the flowers that they lurk amongst that an approaching bee has no hope of spotting it. When the would-be pollinator alights, the ambush bug lunges forth and impales the victim with a syringe-like proboscis. The prey, which is often much larger than the predator, is instantly paralyzed by neurotoxins injected by the ambush bug. Crab spiders are also effective flower hunters and can alter their coloration to match the color of the blossom that they are perched upon. A hunting crab spider will sit with its forelegs outstretched, ready to pounce and embrace a hapless butterfly with an inescapable death grip.

Tune your eye to Nature’s camouflage artists, and you’ll soon see masters of mimicry everywhere you go.

Jim McCormac
Ohio Division of Wildlife