Camouflaged Butterflies

Another AMAZINGLY (if thats a word) fun time in science class! In class just a few days ago we did a little activity on camouflage, in which our teacher gave us a coloring sheet of a butterfly for us to color to camouflage something in the room. I did mine royal blue to go on the recycling bin. After we colored these butterflies we stuck them where ever they were camouflaged to go and another teacher came into our classroom and portrayed a predator looking for the butterflies to eat. He grabbed a whole bunch of them but mine wasn't one of them...for the first round. Shortly after that we had to hide the butterflies again but in a different spot, and the whole thing was repeated again. This took place about 3 times. I learned that butterflies have camouflage to protect themselves from predators, warn predators and also to scare them away. I think that this protection is REALLY cool and it really makes me think about how there is a survival purpose to everything. For example the eyespots on the butterflies make them look like they're a bigger and more dangerous animal. Also, some butterflies like the Indian leaf butterfly look like dead leaves that have fallen on the wood floor. One other interesting fact is that some butterflies can camouflage themselves so well that its impossible with the human eye alone to see them. I just think that this is SO cool I mean humans have none of these cool characteristics we simply scare other animals away because they no that we will kill them and eat them for supper.

for more info on this matter go to www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/allabout/Defense.shtml