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ORANGE TIP CATERPILLAR |
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Butterflies face the challenge of staying alive throughout their life cycle. They have evolved a number of ways to stay alive, primarily to avoid being eaten.
Caterpillars generally adopt one of two strategies: either warning predators through bright colours, relying on the learned behaviour of predators that certain colour schemes are associated with a distasteful or toxic meal or the opposite strategy of hiding from predators through camouflage or behaviour.
Caterpillars also exhibit good camouflage . The Orange Tip caterpillar looks like a blade of grass. Other caterpillars prefer to ward off predators by using bright colours thus suggesting that they are poisonous. Others use spines to give the impression that they would be uncomfortable to eat. In reality the spines are often quite soft.
Butterflies, like caterpillars, make good eating for a whole variety of birds and spiders. The coloured markings on the upper surface of the wings may be useful not just as warnings to birds but also as distracters. Adult butterflies still need to avoid being eaten but also have to be visible to attract potential mates. Many have reached an evolutionary compromise of showy colours when in flight, but using their camouflaged underwings to keep them safe at rest. The peacock has taken this a stage further, using its bright colours and false eyes to actively defend itself from predators.
With their wings closed the Comma looks like a dead leaf for excellent camouflage.
The Brimstone butterfly roosts in ivy, although it is a yellow butterfly the shape of its wings and the prominent veins make it quite hard to spot.
COMMA |
BRIMSTONE |
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Many other species of butterfly are drab on their under wings. This is a camouflage against stony ground.
A well documented strategy used by Peacocks to ward off predators is the emission of growling sounds which it produces with its wings. Its wings also have bright shapes which look like eyes which are flashed in this process, thus making it even more frightening to it's predators.
PEACOCK |
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