Jungle Bugs: Masters of Camouflage and Mimicry FROM THE PUBLISHER
During roughly 400 million years on this planet, one million species of insects have developed with a great diversity of shape and color to protect them from predators.
Bruce Purser spent years traveling through tropical forests studying insects and photographing their ongoing quest for survival as they blended into tree trunks and imitated sticks, leaves, other bugs, and even bird droppings. Taken in exotic locales including French Guyana, the Peruvian Amazon, Malaysia, Kenya, Morocco, and Venezuela, his dazzling photographs are accompanied by thoughtful text as he traces the insects' efforts to hide from or scare off their predators.
In this charming and informative book:Explore the dangerous and little-known world of insectsExperience exotic tropic toursDiscover animal behavior in lively and understandable languageFind out how a good disguise or a good impersonation can make the difference between life and death in the animal world
Stunning color photographs reveal insect secrets that we would never get a chance to observe ourselves: such as a harmless moth that looks exactly like a stinging wasp or an inoffensive butterfly that's protected from predators because its coloring is almost identical to that of a highly poisonous variety.
SYNOPSIS
Illustrated throughout with high-quality color photographs taken by the author, this text for the general reader describes how certain species of bugs have protected themselves from predators by evolving into shapes and colors that conform to their habitats. Coverage includes, for example, insects that resemble leaves or sticks, those that confuse predators by adopting acrobatic positions, and others that mimic other insects or animals. Trained as a geologist, Purser has been photographing insects in their natural environment since the 1970s. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR