Insect Camouflage

This week I'm talking about insect camouflage. Camouflage is a strategy used by many animals, definitely not just insects, but I think insect camouflage is fascinating. Insects use a wide variety of techniques to camouflage themselves from both predators and prey and even use different camouflage techniques throughout their life cycles.

One of my favorite examples of insect camouflage is the caddisfly and at the end of this blog, I'll show you how to make your very own cardboard caddisfly larvae!

Caddisflies lay their eggs on vegetation just above a body of water and the larvae emerge and fall into the water.
The larvae build themselves a cocoon from silk and submerged detritus (underwater rubbish such as stones or wood) around themselves, This cocoon protects the larvae from predators. The larvae can carry around their cocoon while they feed on algae like a little portable home! This Cocoon also provides amazing camouflage and makes the caddis fly larvae really hard to spot against a background of the same materials.

The caddisfly then undergoes metamorphosis and turns into an adult, just like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, emerging as a winged adult. The adult caddisfly lives on land and also has amazing camouflage, blending in perfectly with its surroundings to evade predators while they feed on nectar.

Next time you visit a pond, lake or stream have a look under rocks to see if you can spot any caddisfly cases!

Making a cardboard caddisfly!

You will need:

• A cardboard tube
• Sticks, leaves or other natural materials
• A gift tag or small rectangle of card
• A drinking straw or a thin stick
• googly eyes! (you could also draw eyes on)
• Glue
• Sticky tape

First, we're going to make the caddisfly case by gluing sticks and leaves all over the outside of the cardboard tube. Try and match the caddisfly's case to the habitat you want it to live in to help it blend in!

Use some sticky tape to attach your drinking straw or stick to the back of your gift tag. This with be your caddisfly larvae!

Add some googly eyes and decorate your caddisfly larvae however you like! Real life caddisfly larvae have 3 pairs of legs at the front of their body and scraping mouthparts to help them collect algae off of underwater surfaces. Think about where your caddisfly will live and what you think it would eat, can you add decorations to help your caddisfly to move and feed in its environment?

You're all done!
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Sarah xx