A flower that looks empty may be hosting a hunter. Ambush bugs can blend into blossoms and wait for visiting insects to come within reach. That is one reminder that camouflage is not only a way for garden insects to hide from predators: it can also help predators approach prey.
How insect camouflage works
Camouflage makes an insect harder to notice by reducing the clues that give away its presence. The effect can come from color and pattern, but also from body shape, posture, stillness, and movement. North Carolina State University’s entomology teaching resource describes crypsis as matching an insect to its surroundings; outline and reflective highlights matter alongside color.
Camouflage is context-dependent. An insect that is difficult to see on one plant may stand out after moving to a different background. The same teaching resource notes that a change of habitat can weaken the concealment.
Ways garden insects disappear into their surroundings
Matching a background
Cryptic coloration helps an insect blend into the surface behind it. The match may involve a combination of colors and markings rather than a single hue. Green alone does not prove an insect is camouflaged: what matters is how visible it is against the particular leaves, stems, or flowers where it rests.
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Resembling leaves, twigs, or other plant parts
Some insects’ shapes and still postures make them resemble thorns, twigs, brambles, or dead and living leaves. North Carolina State University calls resemblance to environmental objects mimesis; Washington State University Extension also describes insects that resemble these plant forms.
This is not automatically mimicry. Leaf or twig resemblance is a form of cryptic resemblance to part of the environment. Batesian mimicry, by contrast, involves an organism resembling a defended model; Müllerian mimicry is another distinct form described by Washington State University Extension. These terms describe different relationships, so they should not be used interchangeably.
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Adding material from a host plant
Some caterpillars use plant material as part of their disguise. In a study of the geometrid moth Synchlora frondaria, larvae raised on three host plants differed systematically in color and decorated themselves with material from their host plant. The study reported the highest survivorship on Heterotheca subaxillaris; relative growth rates were higher on H. subaxillaris and Lantana camara than on Bejaria racemosa. Those findings apply to the studied species and experimental treatments, not to caterpillars generally. The study appears in Ecological Entomology.
NC State Extension describes the camouflaged looper as able to change its disguise for different plants, in contrast with caterpillars that blend into a plant on which they specialize. This is an example of one caterpillar’s strategy, not a rule for all larvae: NC State Extension’s camouflaged looper profile.
Why a predator would use camouflage
Camouflage can help an insect avoid being detected, but it can also help a predator get close to prey. Ambush bugs use flower-matching colors and patterns to wait among blossoms for visiting insects. Oregon State University Extension describes their jaggedly mixed colors as camouflage on flowers; Clemson Cooperative Extension explains that ambush bugs hide on flowers and seize prey with specialized forelegs.
Their colors are not limited to green. University of Maryland Extension describes ambush bugs as dark, creamy, bright yellow, red, or green, with patterns that help them blend into flowers. Flowering plants can provide hunting sites for these predators, and the extension recommends avoiding broad-spectrum insecticides to conserve them: University of Maryland Extension’s ambush bug guide.
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How to look for camouflaged insects in a garden
- Look slowly across flowers and foliage rather than scanning only for movement or bright colors.
- Check the outline of leaves, stems, and blossoms; an insect may resemble a plant part or interrupt its own outline.
- Pay particular attention to flowers, where an ambush bug may be waiting for prey.
- Notice the background as well as the insect: a color match that works on one plant may fail on another.
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