A Biology Lesson From Winnie-the-Pooh: Crypsis and Masquerade

'It's like this,' [Pooh] said. 'When you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you're coming. Now, if you have a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, and not notice you, and if you have a blue balloon, they might think you were only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is: Which is most likely?'

‘Wouldn't they notice you underneath the balloon?' [Christopher Robin] asked.

'They might or they might not,' said Winnie-the-Pooh. 'You never can tell with bees.' He thought for a moment and said: I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them'

'Then you had better have the blue balloon' [Christopher Robin] said: and so it was decided…

…Winnie-the-Pooh went to a very muddy place that he knew of, and rolled and rolled until he was black all over; and then, when the balloon was blown up as big as big, and you and Pooh were both holding on to the string, you let go suddenly, and Pooh Bear floated gracefully up into the sky'

(Milne, 1926)

Still from The Many Adventrures of Winnie-the-Pooh

(Source: Disney Image by Disney)

What Winnie-the-Pooh (or the author A. A Milne I assume) probably did not realise was that Pooh was using two different types of mimicry when he made his feeble attempts to approach the bees nest and steal their honey unnoticed. In having his balloon blend in with the surroundings (the blue sky) he used crypsis. By covering himself in mud to try and look like an intimate object that would normally be in a sky (a dark cloud) he used masquerade. Unfortunately for Pooh, his skills at mimicry left quite a bit to be desired! In the animal kingdom, this is far from the case.

Animals that use crypsis don’t always have it as easy as Pooh did. In Pooh’s case, the sky was one colour and all he had to do was match that colour. A similar case would be of a green aphid blending into its background of a green leaf or a polar bear blending into the snow and ice. Not all environments are that uniform though. Animals can live in habitats that vary greatly in colour and can also vary from season to season proving crypsis to be difficult. An example pointed out by Allen and Cooper (1985) is the common meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus found in grasslands in Europe. There are many morphs of this species that all appear to represent different sections of the background environment (pictured below) (Allen & Cooper, 1985).

(A)          Purple morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus

(Source: Adur Nature Notes 2005. Image by Unknown)

(B)          Brown morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus

(Source: naturephoto-cz.com. Image by Krasensky)

(C)          Purple, green and brown morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus

(Source: Wyre Forest Blog. Image by Unknown)

(D)          Green morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus

(Source: Natural History Museum. Image by Palmer)

(E)           Green and white morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus

(Source: Lound Bird Club. Image by Warne)

An alternative to crypsis is masquerade. In masquerade, organisms copy an object that would be of no interest to their predator (or their prey) despite being obvious to them. This, unlike crypsis, counts on the fact that the predator (or prey) actually sees the individual but mistakes it for something else. Some examples of prey escaping detection are butterflies that look like dead leaves, or caterpillars that resemble bird droppings (Allen & Cooper, 1985). My personal favourite example of a predator hiding in order to capture is the carnivorous caterpillars of Hawaii (Eupithecia orichloris) which imitate sticks and wait for an unsuspecting fly (or similar sized insect) to venture onto the “branch” and become their next meal (Montgomery, 1982). This strategy is also used by prey avoiding predation (Allen & Cooper, 1985).

Anaea archidonia butterfly

(Source: Personal Documents. Image by Summers)

Papilio demoleus caterpillar

(Source: Wildlife Junior Journal. Image by Payne)

In some cases it is hard to determine whether an organism is being masquerading or being cryptic. If the object that the organism is masquerading as is abundant enough it may be considered to be cryptic. Returning to A.A Milne’s example, how many little black clouds would there need to be before our little friend Pooh goes from masquerading as a cloud to blending into a background of clouds and being cryptic? Or else, how many stones would there need to be in an area before stone grasshoppers (pictured below) are being cryptic?

Stone Grasshopper from Namibia

(Source: What’s That Bug? Image by Grimfoot)

References

Allen, J. A. & Cooper, J. M., 1985. Crypsis and masquerade. Journal of Biological Education, 19(4), pp. 268-270.

Disney, n.d., Still from The Many Adventrures of Winnie-the-Pooh, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

<http://video.disney.com/watch/climb-a-tree-4bb39d8294da5a8833003b15>

Grimfoot, 2009, Stone Grasshopper from Namibia, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2009/11/30/stone-grasshopper-from-namibia/>

Krasensky P, n.d., Brown morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/chorthippus-parallelus-photo_lat-4538.html>

Milne, A. A., 1926. Winnie-the-Pooh. 1st ed. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd..

Montgomery, S. L., 1982. Biogeography of the Moth Genus Eupithecia in Oceania and the evolution of ambush predation in Hawaiian caterpillars. Entomologia Generalis, 8(1), pp. 27-34.

Palmer, G, n.d., Green morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/species-of-the-day/biodiversity/climate-change/chorthippus-parallelus/>

Payne, JA, n.d., Papilio demoleus caterpillar, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.nhptv.org/wild/karnereasterntigerswallowtail.asp>

Purple, green and brown morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus, 2013, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.wyreforest.net/wyreblog/2013/08/10/meadow-grasshopper-chorthippus-parallelus/_mg_2693-chorthippus-parallelus-meadow-grasshopper-franks-clearing-dowles/>

Purple morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus, 2005, photograph. Viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.glaucus.org.uk/July2005.html>

Summers, KM, 2014, Anaea archidonia butterfly, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014.

Warne, M, 2011, Green and white morph of the meadow grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus, photograph, viewed 22 April 2014

< http://www.loundbirdclub.com/wildlifesightings2011.htm>