17 June 2017

Crypsis


A Baron caterpillar on a leaf.

An article at the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society explains the difference between masquerade, Batesian mimicry, and crypsis.
Masquerade is also thought to differ from crypsis because cryptic individuals are mistaken for the background on which they rest, whereas masquerading individuals are mistaken for specific objects. As a result, crypsis relies on the relationship between the individual and the background, but the benefit of masquerade is thought to be independent of the background against which the masquerading individual is viewed...
Image via.

4 comments:

  1. It took me a bit of hunting to find the caterpillar. Amazing! Thanks.

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  2. is there an alternate view of that - one that shows the caterpillar decrypted?

    I-)

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  3. Required reading if you are intrigued by this caterpillar:

    http://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2015/04/life-history-of-baron-v20.html

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