This post came to life after I attended “Patterns in Nature” — an eye-opening session that revealed how plants and animals use patterns not just for beauty, but for survival. The captivating talk was delivered by Karthikeyan S, Chief Naturalist at Jungle Lodges and Resorts, at NGMA Bengaluru
A beautiful picture isn’t it? What you see is a bright yellow flower and a honey bee perhaps sucking nectar from it? The very picture of bliss…
However what you see is an illusion. The bee is in its last stages of life! It is a feast for a crab spider i.e sitting camouflaged, mimicking the flower. Being camouflaged, the crab spider is also hidden from its prey.
Such is the drama going on in nature. Battles, war cries, ambushes.. all happening in the lap of nature and we seldom realise this. We completely miss ‘behind the scenes action’ or worse fail to spot the animal or the plant itself.
Camouflages In Nature:
Photo Credit: Rillke
Or take the Pebble Plant. Taking inspiration from stone, this plant -Lithops fulviceps is disguised as a pebble. So it escapes the eyes of herbivores animals and survives.
An excellent survival technique isn’t it? We talk about cameras, high tech security surveillance gadgets yet these plants right under our noses, are quietly leading their life with what I call the advanced survival techniques that would have taken years to evolve.
The colours, patterns that surround us is not for our entertainment. They have a deeper purpose. The patterns in nature are for survival mentioned Karthikeyan S, Chief Naturalist at JLR in his talk.
While some patterns act as camouflage, some patterns in nature are for deflection, some for attracting mates and food and some serve to warn others, a sort of battle cry before the strike.
Photo credit :Vinayaraj, CC BY-SA 4.0
Can you find out which is the trunk and which is the Pupa? The Common Mime pupa which is at its most vulnerable phase adopts this technique to survive. It has mimicked the pattern of the tree to survive. Crab spiders, Mantis, Horn frogs are some other examples.
Patterns for Deflection:
Some patterns are also to deflect the enemies and save themselves.
Photo credit:Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0
Known as False-eye sergeant, this fish has a black spot in its rear end. It mimics the eyes of larger predators to intimidate attackers or to deflect attacks away from its vital body parts. You can see such kind of deflection in butterflies as well. They too have false eyespots on their wings.
The eyes of peacock in its tail is a way to impress its mate. Some pheasant varieties do this too like Satyr Tragopan.
Lantana flowers change colour after pollination — nature’s way of saying, “I’m done here. After pollination occurs, the colour of the flowers changes like yellow to orangish, pinkish, or reddish.Flowers use landing lights to guide bees toward nectar. Bees can see UV light. So flowers attract bees by having stripes and patterns that are not only visible to the bees but also guide them in.
Patterns to Warn:
Bright colours ,sounds to warn people and prey are some other tricks that animals have up their sleeve. Take the Cobra for example, when it lifts up its head and shows its fangs. Or the Tiger Centipede that tells you to keep off with its bright orange, black colours. Or the colourful Blister Beetle that is tough to handle. It voluntarily bleeds and causes blisters in your skin and hence its name!
