By Anonymous -
Coloration in Insects

Across plant and animal species there are a variety of different color traits, all of which can be used to analyze their abilities of evading predators or attacking prey. Coloration is a key component in the survival and persistence of many insect species. Once type of coloration that may protect a species from becoming prey is camouflage, also known as cryptic coloration. These insects are often the same color as their most common surroundings. This helps prey blend into their environment and avoid being eaten. Some examples of camouflaged insects include: 

Stick Bugs (Phasmatodea)
Photo: Brian Gratwicke/Flickr

Common Baron Caterpillar (Euthalia aconthea)
Photo: wohinauswandern/Flickr

Katydid (Tettigoniidae)
Photo: yeomans/Flickr

Insects can also exhibit warning coloration meaning that their coloring can be aposematic and serve as an off putting distraction to an predators who come near it. It is not uncommon for insects who exhibit this type of coloration to have sequestered a harmful chemical, that the predator will reject when attempting to eat them. Their coloration serves as a memorable trait in this case reminding the predator the consequences of ingesting them. 

Warning coloration is defined as an organism having bold colors with distinct patterns. It is normally seen in organisms with characteristics such as being poisonous or dangerous. This warns animals and other organisms to stay away from them and don’t eat them. Insects have been shown in studies that they have highly developed color vision and can see more than mammals. Warning colors in insects have to be able to stand out from their back ground such as greenery in the tropics or brown colorations on trees and rocks. Since they have to stand out from their background, most of their colorations consist of reds, oranges, yellows, and occasionally blues. Most of the times these colors are offset by black to contrast them more. The most common patterns in insects consist of reds and black and yellows and black. These are the most warning colors and easily recognizable by other organisms so they don’t get eaten. Stinging insects and monarchs are the most common with warning coloration. This mainly helps warn off birds and other predators, shows them they are dangerous and or poisonous.

Examples of aposematic insects:

Yellow Jacket (Vespidae)

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars (Lepidoptera)

Bombardier Beetle (Coleoptera)
Image courtesy of Thomas Eisner.


Perhaps the most fascinating form of insect coloration is mimicry, in which the insect will assume the coloration or pattern, that is also seen in a predator. This helps the insect to evade predation by pretending that it, itself is a predator. The majority of the time the insect exhibiting mimicry is not aposematic, so that means they just have that intimidation factor. If a predator disregards the insect's mimicry, then that means it is game over for the "faker". However, that intimidation factor can be just enough to make sure that the insect survives and eventually reproduces. 

Hoverfly imitating a bee (Diptera)
Source: Matt Bilton on Flickr

The Lygodium Spider Moth imitating an arachnid (Lepidoptera)
photo: John Horstman

The Swallowtail Caterpillar imitating bird excrement (Lepidoptera)
PHOTOGRAPH BY TAKU YAMAMOTO AND KANON YAMAMOTO






Sources:

http://www.biologyreference.com/Ma-Mo/Mimicry-Camouflage-and-Warning-Coloration.html

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/warning-coloration

http://www.fiboni.com/2014/01/the-common-baron-caterpillar-a-camouflaging-expert/

Huheey, James E. "Warning Coloration and Mimicry." Chemical Ecology of Insects. N.p.: Springer US, n.d. N. pag. Print.















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