maryatkinsonwildonline: THE DECEIVERS

THE DECEIVERS

I grew some single dahlias from seed last year to provide another flower for pollinators. I saved their rather rudimentary tubers over-winter and planted them out this spring. I put one, in a pot where I could keep an eye on it. Its flowers are creamy white with a central boss of golden stamens. The other morning a movement caught my eye. As I approached, a small white spider scuttled off the flower and down among the leaves; it stopped, with the front pair of its legs sticking out at right angles. It was a Crab Spider. Do they turn white on white flowers and yellow on yellow flowers? Or does the appropriately-coloured spider go to a matching flower? Whatever, they are well-camouflaged and wait in ambush for an insect to visit the flower.


Crab Spiders tend to go among leaves at night

Crab spider with captured fly.

In southern Europe we have seen Praying Mantises sitting in ambush, motionless among grass stems, fearsome front legs half folded, ready to flick out and grab the unsuspecting prey. Only a slight furtive movement gives them away.

Eyed Hawk Moth

False Eyes. The Eyed Hawk will flash its wings to reveal the eye pattern on its hind wing to startle and deceive a predator.

Caterpillars may confuse or alarm predators with camouflage, or a fearsome appearance.

Lobster Moth caterpillar.

What bird would tackle this mass of hairs?

Caterpillars may be very hairy making them unpalatable or even toxic, or coloured with warning stripes so that a predator is warned either in fact or bluff, that the creature is poisonous. It may not be the colour itself that is a warning, but the dramatic stripe pattern as birds don’t necessarily see colours as we do.

Stripey Cinnabar caterpillars on Ragwort

Warning colour of adult Cinnabar moth.

The poison, or poison warning colour in insects may be carried through the generations.

Camouflage like Poplar Hawks Moths, coloured and assuming a resting position resembling dead leaves, or Merveille du Jour, coloured and marked like lichen growth, will make these insects less conspicuous.