Mimicry – Protective Coloration

Mimicry may be defined as imitation or copying of an action or image. It helps animals and plants in various ways: keep them from being eaten or help them get food.
The fly orchid is a type of plant whose flower looks like a fly. This helps the plant attract real flies to pollinate it.
Some animals use mimicry to prey on other creatures. The tongue of the alligator snapping turtle looks like a worm. The turtle lies in water with its mouth open. When fish come over to get the “worm,” the turtle eats them.
The eggs of the European cuckoo look like the eggs of other birds. So, host parents incubate cuckoo’s eggs as their own.
Passionflower plants sometimes grow little lumps that look like butterfly eggs. So, the plant protests itself from being eaten by the caterpillars that would develop from the real eggs.

From: Britannica Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia of Sciences.
Photos by Art Wolfe

Mimicry – Protective Coloration

Mimicry Art

Liu Bolin is an artist from China and he has learned to imitate the environment perfectly. It takes him up to ten hours to create one work. As a result passersby often do not notice the author. This series of works was made by Liu as protest against the actions of the Chinese authorities, who closed his studio in Beijing and pursued not only him, but also many other contemporary Chinese artists.