Natural History Goat Notes

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White is best for staying warm in winter

Seasonal colours change – i.e. snowshoe hair, weasels, ptarmigan

Overall patterns – streaks, lines, blotches, etc.

Also discrete patches of colour can also be used for concealment

Disruptive Patterns are patterns on the animal that breaks up an animal’s body into

parts, making it harder for predators to spot from a distance.

Many songbirds have eyelines and eyestripes for concealment

Kill Deer have lines on their breast to hide them, again using Disruptive Patterns

In summer birds are nesting, only their heads are visible – the lines break up the pattern of the birds head – less visible as can only see pieces of the bird, disrupt the contour of the head = disruptive patterns

On farms there are killdeer birds – they have same facial patterns and bands on the breast - another disruptive patterns – bars break up the shape of the bird when sitting nesting

Canada goose – chin strap – put their heads down so looks like their head is severed from their body (nest on beaver lodges) – disruptive pattern breaks up so doesn’t appear to be a solid shape; as long as doesn’t move, it is cryptic

An angle-winged butterfly resembles a worn down leave. This is using the shape of

the body to camouflage themselves.

Common loon – necklace, when frightened put heads down, pattern to reflect light shining on fresh vegetation on shorelines

Leopard frog in water or leaves to be invisible to the hunter – pattern mixture of background matching with spots and also disruptive pattern with lines on back to break up (as long as pattern reaches the end of the body it can be called a disruptive pattern) – their legs have blocks (top and bottom part of legs) so when the leg folds up the blocks match up, so when not moving this alignment is called coincident disruptive coloration: when different colours match up to create one pattern that disrupts the animals shape

Not only colour makes animal camouflaged – shape does too (i.e. angle-winged butterfly, made to look like a dead leaf)

Another example is walking stick (stick bug) to resemble a twig and tomato hornworm blends with leaf

Lecture 2

Chapter 1: Staying Alive

Broad category of how animals defend themselves is camouflage, thus being cryptic is essential

Forest ground – spotted pattern

Cattail marsh or field with tall grass – lines and stripes on body

Entire shape can be used for camouflage as well – shape can hide too

Camouflage only works if you are cryptic (means not moving)

Angle-winged butterflies are shaped to reflect dead leaves (i.e. Mourning Cloak), also have mimicry going on; called the dead leaf mimic with the intent to resemble the environment – not background matching (resembling whole environment around you), more so background mimicry or Masquerade is having the shape of the something or modifying the body to match the surroundings. (using masquerade to change appearance to resemble something in the environment that’s a non-edible item)

Dead leaf mimicry common in insect world, especially moths (some roll their wings up to resemble a dead leaf, and uses colour of dark shading to look like rolled up hollow leaf). Angle-winged butterflys do this too

Efforts of these animals (insects) have survival advantage through remarkable colour patterns and shapes to make them resemble non-edible items (masquerade is in place)

Katydid = live leaf mimic

Luna moths hide up in the leaves of the canopy during daytime and partially blow in the wind = live leaf mimic

Caterpillars can use masquerade i.e. to resemble a stem (twig mimicry – Inchworm)

Walking sticks are convincing twig mimics – active during the night, hide during the day

An example of thorn mimic is the tree hopper, who aims to resemble the thorns/pricks on raspberry plants for example

Bird dropping aren’t edible – so some moths are included in the “bird dropping moths” who take on bird dropping mimics – some caterpillars also use the bird dropping mimic, fore example the caterpillar that becomes the giant swallowtail (made to shine/glisten like fresh bird droppings)

Speculation of pinecone mimic – to be determined

A masquerade can come in a variety of forms; it’s when the body and colour patterns resemble something usually inedible

Some animals go even farther and create their own masquerade, adding materials to themselves – i.e. Camouflaged Looper; a caterpillar (loopers are inchworms) cuts off pieces of plant and sticks these to itself

Camouflaged Loopers use the surroundings (such as plants) to cover their body, hiding them from predators trying to find them.

- Spittle Bugs generate a frothy wet spit-like material called spittle to hide themselves from predators

- Woolly Aphids create silk strains on top of themselves to conceal themselves

- Scarlet Lily Leaf Beetles Larvae (child form) coats itself with feces (poop) to conceal itself, making it seem like poop and less appetizing.

Spittlebugs create the illusion of being frothy wet material

Woolly aphids create silk strands around their body to disguise themselves as insects on the stem – caterpillars eat woolly aphids

Scarlet lily leaf beetle coats itself in feces, has a sack of droppings that sticks to it

Background matching – general colour patterns match colours