Natures wonders: biomimetics; beetle bites resemble them (Introduction)

by David Turell @, Tuesday, February 27, 2018, 18:22 (2212 days ago) @ David Turell

A very brief excerpt with a picture of the way the beetles look like the leaf injury from their bites:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2162276-beetles-hide-by-looking-like-the-bite-mark...

"Beetle or bite mark? Leaf beetles are disguising themselves as the holes and scrapes they make on leaves while eating. Although many insects trick predators by mimicking objects like twigs and leaves, this is the first instance of feeding damage being used as a decoy.
Fredric Vencl from Stony Brook University in New York and his colleagues had trouble picking out skeletonising leaf beetles on heavily-chewed leaves, and decided to investigate. They analysed photographs of 119 species alongside the size, shape and colour of their bite patterns. Most species resembled their own bite …" (paywall)

Comment: I'm too cheap to buy the article, but look at the picture to make the point. How does an evolutionary process do this? Not by chance.


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