ENGAGE!

Which is easier to see?

EXPLORE! Get into groups of 3-4 and develop one insect per person by cutting out paper. Your teams will then hide the insects around the room. Hide them as well as possible but the bugs must not be inside of or under/behind anything. Your teams will have 10 minutes to do this and then will try to find the other teams’ insects for two minutes. The team with the most undiscovered insects wins.

EXPLAIN! What helped you hide your insects? What did you try that worked? What did you try that didn’t work?

Explain Camouflage comes from the French word camouflager which means to "blind or veil". Some insects and animals use camouflage as an effective way to protect themselves from natural enemies. Phenotype is the physical trait of an organism.

Elaborate Camouflage and mimicry are adaptations some animals use as protection from predators. An animal that uses camouflage looks like things in its environment. It might look like a leaf, a twig, or a rock. Animals that use mimicry use colors and markings to look like another animal.

Mimicry Mimicry is when insects fool their enemies by looking like an insect that is dangerous or bad tasting.

Hawk Moth Mimicry This moth caterpillar defends itself by mimicking a snake.

One of the snakes in the picture below is venomous and the other one is a mimic. Coral snakes are very easy to see because of their bright red, yellow, and black stripes. They are colored this way so that other animals know they are dangerous and will leave them alone. The Scarlet Kingsnake looks almost EXACTLY like the Coral snake, but it is perfectly harmless!

It is hard to tell the difference, isn't it? The scarlet king snake on the left is the mimic, and the coral snake on the right is the venomous one. The scarlet king snake is hoping that its enemies will think it is dangerous and not eat it! If you couldn't tell the difference, don't worry about it! The Kingsnake, or the mimic, would be really happy that you couldn't! If you ever see one of these snakes, here is a rhyme to help you remember the difference between the two. "Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Red on black, won't hurt Jack." text taken from http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/adaptations/snake.html

Evaluate Write a paragraph about how mimicry and camouflage are seen in the animal world and in your own social experiences. Record your observations of these adaptations in the video presentation.