Q What kinds of beetles use camouflage?
— Avery Nelson
A PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab:
Beetles are an extremely diverse group of insects on the planet. There are about a million or more described species of insects that we know of so far, and of those about 400,000 are beetles.
Some beetles use camouflage while others are very easy to spot like lady beetles, which we can see on plants and on the side of buildings at certain times of the year.
When it comes to camouflage, there are plenty of beetle species that blend in because they have brown or black coloration. If you go to sandy areas, there are certain tiger beetles that have beige colors on their body and can blend in very well. Mottled color patterns are a common type of camouflage that enables blending in with natural features in the world.
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In other examples, beetles can mimic something. There are long-horned beetles that blend in very well on the bark or branches of trees. Some leaf beetles mimic droppings of insects or other animals on leaves.
Other beetles mimic other insects. There are long-horned beetles that have vibrant black and yellow patterns on their bodies and mimic things like paper wasps and yellow jackets. They give a false appearance of being dangerous when they’re really harmless creatures.
Other beetles will camouflage themselves to look and actually smell like ants, using some chemical camouflage as well.
Beetles and other insects can use camouflage for a number of different reasons. The biggest reason is to avoid predators and keep them at bay.
Blue Sky Science is a collaboration of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Morgridge Institute for Research.
