a dead leaf,
you might say, photograph by enyagene/Flickr,
'nothing to see here, move along' but wait a second,
that leaf looks suspiciously like it has legs,
and as these two videos show it has,
when it comes to the art of camouflage, few
creatures can match Uropyia
meticulodina, a small moth capable of mimicking a dead,
(there are a number of other mimics in the link), curled up leaf almost to
perfection, its resemblance to a dead leaf curled round in on itself complete
with tiny leaf-like veins is just uncanny, this living optical illusion spends
most of its time on the damp floor of forests in China and Taiwan, and is quite
small as can be seen in the videos, I wonder how many other mimics are out
there waiting to be discovered, as in full sight they are so good they are still
fooling us!
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