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In ecology, crypsis is the ability of an animal or a plant [1] to avoid observation or detection by other animals. It may be part of a predation strategy or an antipredator adaptation . Methods include camouflage , nocturnality , subterranean lifestyle and mimicry .
Anti-predator adaptation in action: the kitefin shark (a–c) and the Atlantic wreckfish (d–f) attempt to prey on hagfishes. First, the predators approach their potential prey. Predators bite or try to swallow the hagfishes, but the hagfishes have already projected jets of slime (arrows) into the predators' mouths.
Note: Some topics in this category are adaptations of both predators and prey (e.g. crypsis), so also appear in the parent category predation Subcategories This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Wallace noted that snow camouflage, especially plumage and pelage that changed with the seasons, suggested an obvious explanation as an adaptation for concealment. Poulton's 1890 book, The Colours of Animals , written during Darwinism's lowest ebb , used all the forms of coloration to argue the case for natural selection.
It is often combined with other methods of crypsis including background colour matching and countershading; special cases are coincident disruptive coloration and the disruptive eye mask seen in some fishes, amphibians, and reptiles. It appears paradoxical as a way of not being seen, since disruption of outlines depends on high contrast, so the ...
Underwater camouflage is the set of methods of achieving crypsis—avoidance of observation—that allows otherwise visible aquatic organisms to remain unnoticed by other organisms such as predators or prey. Camouflage in large bodies of water differs markedly from camouflage on land. The environment is essentially the same on all sides.
Thayer's 1902 patent application. He failed to convince the US Navy. The English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton, author of The Colours of Animals (1890) discovered the countershading of various insects, including the pupa or chrysalis of the purple emperor butterfly, Apatura iris, [2] the caterpillar larvae of the brimstone moth, Opisthograptis luteolata [a] and of the peppered moth, Biston ...
Cott's method is to provide a large number of examples, illustrated with his own drawings or photographs, showing animals from different groups including fish, reptiles, birds and insects, especially butterflies. The examples are chosen to illustrate specific adaptations. For example, the fish Chaetodon capistratus is described as follows: [P 2]