rainforest colours: Warning colours
 
A short summary
Some species of animals blatantly advertise their venom or poison through warning colours. The poison arrow frogs walks boldly on the forest floors in broad daylight, obviously having little fear of their predators. Insects go a step further into chasing away their predators. The main idea is to startle the predators with sudden striking colour. Not only insects adopt this method; some species of frogs have bright patches of colour hidden beneath the legs. Insects that feed them on poison-laden plants often have the poison remain in their bodies, thus becoming toxic to predators.

 

Media components


bluefrog.jpg (15821 bytes)
poison dart frogs are brightly coloured to warn predators of the toxic found on their skin.
section outlines:

Some species of animals blatantly advertise their venom or poison through warning colours. Most rainforest frogs are nocturnal only feeding and mating at night where it is much safer. However, the poison arrow frogs are exceptions. Their skin glands produce powerful defensive toxins and advertise them through bright colours on their skin. The poison arrow frogs walks boldly on the forest floors in broad daylight, obviously having little fear of their predators. The toxic that is found on the skin of the golden arrow frog is believed to be so poisonous, it can kill a thousand people upon entering the blood stream via a wound.

But an animal doesn’t have to have poison to scare a predator away. They just need some shocking colours. Many moths have false eyespots; deep blue spheres countershaded with ebony and highlighted with silver flecks, hidden beneath the wings. When threatened, the moth will flicked the wings open to reveal a sudden pair of eyes glaring back at the predator. This can be very shocking especially when the moth’s wingspan is as big as a hand. Some birds maybe so startled, they’ll just fly away, but even if they don’t, the moth will have enough time to escape.

Insects go a step further into chasing away their predators. Caterpillars of sphinx moth are as large as small cigars and with a body size like that, they better have a good plan in mind to get the birds away! In fact they do, whenever disturbed, these caterpillars constrict certain muscles and transform their body into a copy of a head of a small viper. The prominent eye, triangular head and swaying motion make it look just like the real one. The main idea is to startle the predators with sudden striking colour. Not only insects adopt this method; some species of frogs have bright patches of colour hidden beneath the legs. While they are leaping to safety, this bright colour is flashed suddenly.

Insects that feed them on poison-laden plants often have the poison remain in their bodies, thus becoming toxic to predators. However, like the poison arrow frogs, are aware of the toxins they carry and are not reluctant to advertise this toxicity to their predators. Insects such as these are often boldly coloured, usually reds against blacks, yellows and oranges, with a geometric design. These insects do not make any attempt to hide from their predators, in fact they move about in groups.