The Art of Camouflage

Camouflage is blending into your surroundings so you can catch a meal or avoid being a meal.  It’s a high stakes game that nature has to play, and it makes finding new species even more difficult.  However, I am adding new species, slowly but surely, and am now up to 549 for the year.

I walked past this Woodhouse Toad at least three times before I finally realized it was not a rock.  This species is highly variable in color and pattern, and may be brown, gray, olive, tan, or reddish with varying degrees of mottling and dark spots.

 

This Praying Mantis is doing its best to mimic a blade of grass, but it didn’t fool my camera.

If this Carolina Grasshopper had not moved, it probably would not have seen.