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Incredible how a grasshopper and a caterpillar blend in, a miracle of nature, scenes that I have portrayed in Altea in these photographs for La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos.
Mimicry is an ability that certain living beings have to resemble other organisms (with which they are not related) and their own environment to obtain some functional advantage. In this case, we can observe how both the grasshopper and the caterpillar merge with plants, earth and other elements.
The objective of mimicry is to deceive the senses of other animals that live in the same habitat; it is a defense and protection mechanism.
The purpose of mimicry, as a consequence, may be crypsis, that is, camouflage, but it must be taken into account that in mimicry a living being resembles others in its environment and in crypsis the living being resembles itself. environment where you live. Both serve, in any case, to ensure their survival from predators.
In the case of some caterpillars, another phenomenon also occurs. On many occasions mimicry and aposematism (warning signs) coincide. That is, being harmless, they adopt the warning traits of other dangerous animals.
Thus, some caterpillars have spectacular ocelli, concentric paired spots that imitate a pair of open eyes, and other warning signs.
