As a layperson I’d just call it camouflage, but from my years as both an employee and docent at the Los Angeles Zoo I had the more scientific term drummed into my head — cryptic coloration — which is just a fancy bio way of saying a creature’s colors and/or patterns allow it to blend in with its environment and thus make it less vulnerable to predation.
You know, camouflage.
I bring that up because I saw a wonderful example of it today in the form of a small brown and white moth — with a wingspan no wider than a dime — that landed for a rest on one of the river rocks that happened to have brown and white coloringĂ‚Â by the Wall Ball court in the backyard (click to quadruplify):
It ain’t a perfect match, especially when a cam on the macro setting is taking pictures a couple inches away, but I like to think the moth didn’t land on that specific rock (one of dozens in a variety of gradients) by chance.
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