Hide & Go Seek

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 coloring  by the Wall Ball court in the backyard (click to quadruplify):

moth.jpg

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.

Email, RSS Follow

Published by

Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."