Hi everybody! And welcome to a special Halloween episode of Curious By Nature.
My name is Elena, and today we’re going to talk about how four different animals found in and around the
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum use special adaptations like camouflage and mimicry,
and how some don costumes to trick their prey and catch a tasty treat!
Let’s get started.
First up, insect expert Allen,
will tell us all about the beetle known as the “mealybug destroyer”!
Thanks Elena!
Our Judy Istock Butterfly Haven is home to dozens of species of butterflies
but that’s not all that lives there!
The Haven is full of plants that provide nectar for our butterflies
but sometimes they can be home to pests including mealybugs.
Mealybugs are fuzzy white pests of greenhouses that if ignored can damage our plants.
To control them we purposely introduce beneficial lady beetles into the Haven--
enter Cryptolaemus montrouzieri also known as the “mealybug destroyer”.
Lady beetles are predators that eat slow moving, soft bodied insects like aphids, mealybugs, and scale insects.
Cryptolaemus have a special adaptation that makes them great at this task.
Their larvae secrete lots of wax, just like mealybugs do.
It covers their body and helps them resemble their prey, like a costume.
This allows them to hide amongst the mealybugs undetected, feeding on their prey without them noticing and moving away.
Now let's head over to another exhibit, Mysteries of the Marsh, to talk about a much,
much bigger animal.
(Elena) Meet Patsy.
Patsy is an alligator snapping turtle.
Alligator snapping turtles are the largest species of freshwater turtle in North America.
They spend nearly all of their time under water.
In the water, these turtles move very slowly,
so slowly that small plants and algae start to grow on the tops of their shells!
The plants and algae don’t harm these turtles.
When an organism lives on an animal, but doesn’t harm that animal, they’re called epizoites.
The epizoic plants and algae create a great form of camouflage.
It helps these turtles blend in with the plants and algae that grow on the bottoms of rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
Camouflage is very important to an alligator snapping turtle, that’s because they are ambush predators.
Ambush predators are sometimes called sit-and-wait predators.
They use tactics like hiding, camouflage, and lures to hunt their prey!
Let’s take a look at Patsy’s tongue, it looks a lot like a worm wriggling in the water!
Fish love worms.
If Patsy remains hidden to the fish, thanks to her camouflage,
this specially adapted tongue can lure a fish right into her open mouth,
giving Patsy the perfect opportunity to quickly chomp and eat that fish.
The camouflage of her plant and algae-covered shell and her worm-like tongue
make Patsy the perfect ambush predator.
Using her “costume”, she simply sits and waits for her food to come straight to her mouth!
We’ve explored two examples where predators use mimicry to fool their prey.
Mealybug destroyer larvae mimic their prey allowing them to easily approach their meal
and Patsy uses her tongue as a lure to draw prey to her directly.
These are both forms of what is known as aggressive mimicry.
Now, mimicry can be used defensively too.
If we go outside to our Nature Trails we can find Eastern black swallowtail caterpillars.
While they are young and quite vulnerable, swallowtail caterpillars resemble bird poop--
eventually changing color as they grow larger.
The caterpillars trick predators into avoiding them
so they can continue eating their preferred tasty treat, plants, unbothered.
This type of mimicry where an animal resembles an inanimate object is called homotypism.
If we pay close attention to the flowers outside we might notice another insect--
some tiny flies with black and yellow striping that can hover in place.
These are hover flies and they mimic bees.
You’ve probably learned to avoid insects with black and yellow stripes for fear that they may sting you,
and the same goes for predators that eat insects!
Because they are actually flies, hover flies can’t sting-- they don’t even have stingers!
By resembling bees they are able to safely seek out and eat their favorite sweet treat, nectar.
Hover flies are helpful garden visitors at all stages of life!
Adult hover flies are important pollinators, and as maggots, or larvae, they eat aphids.
This form of mimicry where a harmless animal borrows the warning pattern of another that could be harmful to predators
is known as Batesian mimicry.
That wraps up our special Halloween edition of Curious by Nature.
I hope you enjoyed learning about different ways animals use mimicry and costumes
to trick-or-treat with their predators and prey.
I’d love to hear if you’ve learned about any other examples!
Be sure to share them, and any questions, in the comments below.
Don’t forget to give this video a like and be sure to subscribe to the Nature Museum’s channel
so you never miss an episode.