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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 .
The coloration of the Papuan frogmouth Podargus papuensis, its outline disrupted by its plumage, its eye concealed in a stripe, is an effective anti-predator adaptation. Disruptive coloration (also known as disruptive camouflage or disruptive patterning ) is a form of camouflage that works by breaking up the outlines of an animal, soldier or ...
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]
This adaptation allows them to hide within their environment because of a resemblance to the general background or an inedible object. [2] When an insect looks like an inedible or inconsequential object in the environment that is of no interest to a predator, such as leaves and twigs, it is said to display mimesis , a form of crypsis .
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.
There are many methods of achieving crypsis. These include, resemblance to the surroundings, disruptive coloration, eliminating shadow, self-decoration, cryptic behaviour, motion camouflage, changeable skin appearance, countershading, counter-illumination, transparency, and silvering to reflect the environment. Many species are cryptically ...
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.
In the words of camouflage researchers Innes Cuthill and A. Székely, the English zoologist and camouflage expert Hugh Cott's 1940 book Adaptive Coloration in Animals provided "persuasive arguments for the survival value of coloration, and for adaptation in general, at a time when natural selection was far from universally accepted within ...