How do butterflies hide?
Many people enjoy and appreciate butterflies for their beautifully colored wings. The upperside is usually brightly colored. In many cases if the observer takes the time to look at the underside of a butterfly’s wing he would notice something entirely different. The underside of many butterflies wings are patterned in such a way as to blend in with their natural habitat, a sort of camouflage (biologists refer to this as a cryptic pattern). So when the butterfly is in flight and active you can see their bright beautiful colors but when perched suddenly they blend right in! Butterflies that have brightly colored wings are sending a specific message to predators and that message is something like “if you eat me you’ll feel sick”. Many butterfly larvae (caterpillars) ingest toxins found in their host plant (the plant they eat). These toxins can either have an unpleasant taste, or they may actually make a predator sick. These toxins stay in the tissues of the butterfly, so when it emerges a
