IT DEPICTS INTERESTING INSTANCES OF VARIETY OF CAMOUFLAGE ADOPTED BY ANIMALS IN SELF DEFENSE OR FOR SURPRISING PREY .IT MAKE S US WONDER AT THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS OR THE NATURE ITSELF.

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iii CAMOUFLAGE
Many animals specialize in camouflage for attack using elaborate
combinations of colour, shape, and behaviour creating disguise; some
blend with the background ,others masquerade as different animals .
The Carpet shark looking like an underwater boulder lies still on sea
bed with fleshy fringes dangling from lips like algae ,its skin mottled
like rock and encrusted with algae completes the disguise .
Crab spiders catch their prey unawares by changing colour to match
their lair usually a flower by controlling the amount of pigment in skin
Nestled among the leaf on forest floor the Gaboon Viper ‘disappears’
,its shape broken up by bold markings of black, brown, buff and grey,
and head like a fallen leaf, it lies in ambush, merged with surroundings . .
Larvae of Lacewing of Florida steal wax from ,mealy bugs, their prey
and covering themselves with this wax live incognito among the prey .
Just as some creatures disguise to kill, others do so for defense and try
to look like surroundings using stripes, lights, or colour changes in a trice.

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Some fish such as Viper fish carry their own light ‘bulbs’
which they can brighten and dim to order to be able to blend
in with the ambient light and their outline melts away .
Masters at colour change, flat fish blend in superbly
with grainy sea bed. The ‘Founders’ can even reproduce
checker board, a design not found anywhere in Nature .
Tawny frogmouth nesting on a tree in Australia looks
just like a lichen covered broken stump of wood as
its blotchy brown plumage blends well with the trunk .
When it rains, the ‘Sloth’ turns green due to algae growing in its
coarse coat enabling it to blend with green vegetation ;
In dry season algae turn brownish enabling it to merge with dry trunks .
Animals sometimes work together to create group camouflage
to fool predators as in Madagascar insects such as Phiatids have
brilliant coloured wings which when massed together fool bird
predators into thinking they are just petals of no interest to them.

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In fact many animals are great pretenders and ensure safety
by being great confidence tricksters and trying to fool enemies
either by looking like something inedible or by adopting the persona of a
different , more dangerous creature .
Actually the harmless American Hawkmoth caterpillar can
quickly disguise itself as a tree snake flicking a ‘tongue’ in
and out of a ‘snake’s head’ like end and a pair of false eyes ;
From the triangular snake Head to the glint in the eye it is
in fact one of the World’s top impersonators of snakes .
Some of the ‘dead leaves’ which float in the American rivers
are in fact alive and well, being ‘Leaf fishes’ looking like leaves,
with colour , shape, stalk and ribs matching a leaf almost exactly .
Tiny Hippolyte prawn is a technicolour versatility capable of
mimicking all the colors of rainbow and handling patterns and textures
including exact colour ,shade, structure ,vein, and grain of a floating
dead leaf .

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The Horned frog has a mottled brown colouration. Leaf-like
projections on its head ,above its eyes ,and on its elbows and legs along
with twig like mouth help it to merge with surroundings. and look like
leaf litter around it .
The leafy Sea dragon from Australia looks so much like sea weed
that small fish sometimes take refuge in its foliage.They are covered
from head to tail in fleshy skin flaps which ,like fronds of vegetation
float and sway with the swell, and it is almost impossible to locate it.
amongst kelps. As a second line of defense it has a bony armour and
spines which make it inedible and it moves around safe and sound.
Wasps can inflict a nasty sting, and their black- and- yellow outfit
is copied by bees, moths, flies and other insects to scare predators .
Worlds most extraordinary impersonator is ,however, Mimic Octopus
having multiple personalities with its ability to adopt 15 different
characters by changing from sting rays to sea snakes to
sand anemones to, blenny fishes to shrimps and so on due to its
control over colour , shape and behaviour . .