To avoid becoming prey, insects use mimicry to blend into their surroundings.
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When it comes to biology, mimicry is everywhere.
Lions use camouflage to blend in with the savanna. Frogs use mimicry to
match their green environment. Most famously, chameleons will even
change color to blend in with their backgrounds. (See "Find the Mimic" in National Geographic magazine.)
For their part, researchers have long been fascinated with mimicry, and for some contemporaries of Darwin like naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace,
it was mimicry and camouflage that helped convince them of the power of
natural selection. Nature selects for successful traits: Insects that
can blend in with their environments are less likely to be eaten and are
able to pass on their genes-and their natural disguises-to future
generations. (Related: "Photo Gallery: Masters of Undersea Camouflage.")
But according to a study released yesterday, it turns out
that a certain type of leaf mimicry dates back much further than experts
believed, to the time of the dinosaurs. (See "Stick Insects Have Mimicked Plants Since the Age of Dinosaurs.") |
